IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v185y2021ics0921800921000835.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When the circular economy diverges: The co-evolution of biogas business models and material circuits in Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Valve, Helena
  • Lazarevic, David
  • Humalisto, Niko

Abstract

The circular economy operates as an umbrella concept for attempts to find sustainable alternatives to linear ‘take-make-dispose’ production and consumption systems. Making a circular economy transformation has sparked interest in business models as means to decouple value creation and the use of virgin raw materials. However, so far, little attention has been given to the differentiating capacities of business models to enhance circularity. Using Finnish biogas production as a case study, this paper shows how business models operating within a single economic domain and within uniform institutional conditions differ in terms of how they organise material circuits. Four business models are differentiated based on what wastes and side-flows they enable to be recovered, and how. Because the business models co-evolve, their potentials are analysed in relation to the business model ecosystem. An emerging business model competes with the dominating model. The newcomer would help to generate more closed material loops, but the existing institutional landscape fails to provide support for its emerging modes of value creation and value capture. Two other business models qualify as niche solutions coexisting with the other models. Knowing the business model ecosystem opens up prospects for policy revisions that can foster a more circular economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Valve, Helena & Lazarevic, David & Humalisto, Niko, 2021. "When the circular economy diverges: The co-evolution of biogas business models and material circuits in Finland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:185:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921000835
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921000835
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julia L. K. Nußholz, 2017. "Circular Business Models: Defining a Concept and Framing an Emerging Research Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Helena Valve & Petri Ekholm & Sari Luostarinen, 2020. "The circular nutrient economy: needs and potentials of nutrient recycling," Chapters, in: Miguel Brandão & David Lazarevic & Göran Finnveden (ed.), Handbook of the Circular Economy, chapter 27, pages 358-368, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Levänen, Jarkko & Lyytinen, Tatu & Gatica, Sebastian, 2018. "Modelling the Interplay Between Institutions and Circular Economy Business Models: A Case Study of Battery Recycling in Finland and Chile," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 373-382.
    4. Florian Lüdeke‐Freund & Stefan Gold & Nancy M. P. Bocken, 2019. "A Review and Typology of Circular Economy Business Model Patterns," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 36-61, February.
    5. Nancy Bocken & Alexandra Jonca & Karolina Södergren & Jenny Palm, 2020. "Emergence of Carsharing Business Models and Sustainability Impacts in Swedish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Wilts, Henning & O'Brien, Meghan, 2019. "A Policy Mix for Resource Efficiency in the EU: Key Instruments, Challenges and Research Needs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 59-69.
    7. Britz, Wolfgang & Delzeit, Ruth, 2013. "The impact of German biogas production on European and global agricultural markets, land use and the environment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1268-1275.
    8. Provance, Mike & Donnelly, Richard G. & Carayannis, Elias G., 2011. "Institutional influences on business model choice by new ventures in the microgenerated energy industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5630-5637, September.
    9. Michel Callon & Fabian Muniesa, 2005. "Economic markets as calculative collective devices," Post-Print halshs-00087477, HAL.
    10. Boons, Frank & Bocken, Nancy, 2018. "Towards a sharing economy – Innovating ecologies of business models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 40-52.
    11. Diaz Lopez, Fernando J. & Bastein, Ton & Tukker, Arnold, 2019. "Business Model Innovation for Resource-efficiency, Circularity and Cleaner Production: What 143 Cases Tell Us," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 20-35.
    12. Hervé Corvellec & Maira Babri & Herman I. Stål, 2020. "Putting circular ambitions into action: the case of Accus, a small Swedish sign company," Chapters, in: Miguel Brandão & David Lazarevic & Göran Finnveden (ed.), Handbook of the Circular Economy, chapter 20, pages 266-277, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Roberta De Angelis, 2018. "Business Models in the Circular Economy," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-75127-6, January.
    14. Bolton, Ronan & Hannon, Matthew, 2016. "Governing sustainability transitions through business model innovation: Towards a systems understanding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1731-1742.
    15. Constant, Edward II, 2002. "Why evolution is a theory about stability: constraint, causation, and ecology in technological change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1241-1256, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sica, Daniela & Esposito, Benedetta & Supino, Stefania & Malandrino, Ornella & Sessa, Maria Rosaria, 2023. "Biogas-based systems: An opportunity towards a post-fossil and circular economy perspective in Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Marzena Smol, 2021. "Transition to Circular Economy in the Fertilizer Sector—Analysis of Recommended Directions and End-Users’ Perception of Waste-Based Products in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione & Davide Chiaroni & Pasquale Del Vecchio & Andrea Urbinati, 2020. "Designing business models in circular economy: A systematic literature review and research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1734-1749, May.
    2. Mechthild Donner & Ivana Radić, 2021. "Innovative circular business models in the olive oil sector for sustainable mediterranean agrifood systems," Post-Print hal-03158870, HAL.
    3. Mechthild Donner & Ivana Radić, 2021. "Innovative Circular Business Models in the Olive Oil Sector for Sustainable Mediterranean Agrifood Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, February.
    4. Marcos Ferasso & Tatiana Beliaeva & Sascha Kraus & Thomas Clauss & Domingo Ribeiro‐Soriano, 2020. "Circular economy business models: The state of research and avenues ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3006-3024, December.
    5. Mechthild Donner & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "How to innovate business models for a circular bio‐economy?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1932-1947, May.
    6. Nadia Preghenella & Cinzia Battistella, 2021. "Exploring business models for sustainability: A bibliographic investigation of the literature and future research directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2505-2522, July.
    7. Marit Moe Bjørnbet & Sigurd Sagen Vildåsen, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment to Ensure Sustainability of Circular Business Models in Manufacturing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-13, October.
    8. Roberto Hernández-Chea & Akriti Jain & Nancy M. P. Bocken & Anjula Gurtoo, 2021. "The Business Model in Sustainability Transitions: A Conceptualization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Gilbert Silvius & Aydan Ismayilova & Vicente Sales-Vivó & Micol Costi, 2021. "Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.
    10. Marina P. P. Pieroni & Tim C. McAloone & Daniela C. A. Pigosso, 2019. "Configuring New Business Models for Circular Economy through Product–Service Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-22, July.
    11. Marlin Hoffman & Catherina J. Schenck & Frederick Herbst, 2022. "Exploring the Intersection Where Business Models, a Circular Economy and Sustainability Meet in the Waste Economy: A Scoping Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.
    12. Laura Montag, 2023. "Roadmap to a Circular Economy by 2030: A Comparative Review of Circular Business Model Visions in Germany and Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-31, March.
    13. Daniel A. Salas & Paulina Criollo & Angel D. Ramirez, 2021. "The Role of Higher Education Institutions in the Implementation of Circular Economy in Latin America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-27, August.
    14. Jacqueline M. Cramer, 2020. "Implementing the circular economy in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: The interplay between market actors mediated by transition brokers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2857-2870, September.
    15. Carlos F. A. Arranz & Caleb Kwong & Vania Sena, 2023. "The effect of consumption and production policies on circular economy business models: A machine learning approach," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(4), pages 1089-1104, August.
    16. Chia‐Hao Ho & Steffen Böhm & David Monciardini, 2022. "The collaborative and contested interplay between business and civil society in circular economy transitions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2714-2727, September.
    17. Kerem Toker & Ali Görener, 2023. "Evaluation of circular economy business models for SMEs using spherical fuzzy TOPSIS: an application from a developing countries’ perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1700-1741, February.
    18. Ebru Susur & Mats Engwall, 2023. "A transitions framework for circular business models," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(1), pages 19-32, February.
    19. Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Raimund Bleischwitz, 2020. "Business models for environmental sustainability: Contemporary shortcomings and some perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3352-3369, December.
    20. Ida K. Rovanto & Anu Bask, 2021. "Systemic circular business model application at the company, supply chain and society levels—A view into circular economy native and adopter companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1153-1173, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:185:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921000835. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.