IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p963-d482763.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Circular Business Framework for Building, Developing and Steering Businesses in the Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Julian Lauten-Weiss

    (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Döppersberg 19, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany)

  • Stephan Ramesohl

    (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Döppersberg 19, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany)

Abstract

The need for a transition towards a circular economy (CE) is evident, as the current economic model is based on the exploitation of far more resources than the planet can replenish sustainably. A significant part of this economic transition is the inception of new, CE-oriented startups and business activities. While business model frameworks (BMF), such as the Business Model Canvas (BMC), were at the center of discussions about structuring business ideas in the beginning of the millennium, the conversation must now shift towards circular BMFs (CBMF). This paper follows the Design Research Methodology (DRM) for an empirical approach to devising a novel CBMF, including expert interviews as well as a first application of the framework with a startup. Throughout this process, a new and innovative tool called Circular Business Framework (CBF) was created and tested based on CE principles.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian Lauten-Weiss & Stephan Ramesohl, 2021. "The Circular Business Framework for Building, Developing and Steering Businesses in the Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:963-:d:482763
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/963/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/963/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vasileios Rizos & Arno Behrens & Wytze Van der Gaast & Erwin Hofman & Anastasia Ioannou & Terri Kafyeke & Alexandros Flamos & Roberto Rinaldi & Sotiris Papadelis & Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers & Corrado , 2016. "Implementation of Circular Economy Business Models by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Barriers and Enablers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-18, November.
    2. 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.
    3. Marco Cantamessa & Valentina Gatteschi & Guido Perboli & Mariangela Rosano, 2018. "Startups’ Roads to Failure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Maria Barreiro‐Gen & Rodrigo Lozano, 2020. "How circular is the circular economy? Analysing the implementation of circular economy in organisations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3484-3494, December.
    5. Kirchherr, Julian & Piscicelli, Laura & Bour, Ruben & Kostense-Smit, Erica & Muller, Jennifer & Huibrechtse-Truijens, Anne & Hekkert, Marko, 2018. "Barriers to the Circular Economy: Evidence From the European Union (EU)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 264-272.
    6. Mariale Moreno & Carolina De los Rios & Zoe Rowe & Fiona Charnley, 2016. "A Conceptual Framework for Circular Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    7. Mateusz Lewandowski, 2016. "Designing the Business Models for Circular Economy—Towards the Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, January.
    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. Marina I. Baumer-Cardoso & Weslynne S. Ashton & Lucila M. S. Campos, 2023. "Measuring the Adoption of Circular Economy in Manufacturing Companies: the Proposal of the Overall Circularity Effectiveness (OCE) Index," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    2. Roberta De Angelis, 2022. "Circular economy business models as resilient complex adaptive systems," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2245-2255, July.
    3. Md Tasbirul Islam & Usha Iyer-Raniga, 2023. "Circular Business Model Value Dimension Canvas: Tool Redesign for Innovation and Validation through an Australian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-47, July.
    4. Vinicius Minatogawa & Matheus Franco & Izabela Simon Rampasso & Maria Holgado & Diego Garrido & Hernan Pinto & Ruy Quadros, 2022. "Towards Systematic Sustainable Business Model Innovation: What Can We Learn from Business Model Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-35, March.
    5. Lukas Alexander Benz, 2022. "Critical Success Factors for Circular Business Model Innovation from the Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Nathalia Suchek & João J. Ferreira & Paula O. Fernandes, 2022. "A review of entrepreneurship and circular economy research: State of the art and future directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2256-2283, July.
    7. Juliana Kurek & Luciana Londero Brandli & Marcos Antonio Leite Frandoloso & Amanda Lange Salvia & Janaina Mazutti, 2023. "Sustainable Business Models Innovation and Design Thinking: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review of Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-22, January.

    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. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Johannes Matschewsky, 2019. "Unintended Circularity?—Assessing a Product-Service System for its Potential Contribution to a Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, May.
    5. Corinna Vera Hedwig Schmidt & Bastian Kindermann & Cassian Felix Behlau & Tessa Christina Flatten, 2021. "Understanding the effect of market orientation on circular economy practices: The mediating role of closed‐loop orientation in German SMEs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 4171-4187, December.
    6. Chedrak Chembessi & Christophe Beaurain & Geneviève Cloutier, 2022. "Analyzing Technical and Organizational Changes in Circular Economy (CE) Implementation with a TOE Framework: Insights from a CE Project of Kamouraska (Quebec)," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    7. Saskia Manshoven & Jeroen Gillabel, 2021. "Learning through Play: A Serious Game as a Tool to Support Circular Economy Education and Business Model Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, November.
    8. Mohamad Kaddoura & Marianna Lena Kambanou & Anne-Marie Tillman & Tomohiko Sakao, 2019. "Is Prolonging the Lifetime of Passive Durable Products a Low-Hanging Fruit of a Circular Economy? A Multiple Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.
    9. Omar Alhawari & Usama Awan & M. Khurrum S. Bhutta & M. Ali Ülkü, 2021. "Insights from Circular Economy Literature: A Review of Extant Definitions and Unravelling Paths to Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, January.
    10. Claudia Aparecida De Mattos & Thiago Lourenço Meira De Albuquerque, 2018. "Enabling Factors and Strategies for the Transition Toward a Circular Economy (CE)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Antonella Zucchella & Pietro Previtali & Roger Strange, 2022. "Proactive and reactive views in the transition towards circular business models. A grounded study in the plastic packaging industry," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 1073-1102, September.
    12. Fabio A. Madau & Brunella Arru & Roberto Furesi & Pietro Pulina, 2020. "Insect Farming for Feed and Food Production from a Circular Business Model Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-15, July.
    13. 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.
    14. Ángela Triguero & María C. Cuerva & Francisco J. Sáez‐Martínez, 2022. "Closing the loop through eco‐innovation by European firms: Circular economy for sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2337-2350, July.
    15. Marco Antonio Paula Pinheiro & Daniel Jugend & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Hengky Latan, 2022. "Circular economy‐based new products and company performance: The role of stakeholders and Industry 4.0 technologies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 483-499, January.
    16. Anita Ollár & Paula Femenías & Ulrike Rahe & Kaj Granath, 2020. "Foresights from the Swedish Kitchen: Four Circular Value Opportunities for the Built Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-21, August.
    17. José-Antonio Corral-Marfil & Núria Arimany-Serrat & Emma L. Hitchen & Carme Viladecans-Riera, 2021. "Recycling Technology Innovation as a Source of Competitive Advantage: The Sustainable and Circular Business Model of a Bicentennial Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-37, July.
    18. 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.
    19. Gabi Försterling & Ronald Orth & Benjamin Gellert, 2023. "Transition to a Circular Economy in Europe through New Business Models: Barriers, Drivers, and Policy Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-40, May.
    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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:963-:d:482763. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.