The Circular Business Model is a Development Tool in the Process of Transitionto a Circular Economy: Presenting a Model at the Level of Knowledge-based Companies

During the past decades, circular economy has become a fundamental and important issue in many developed countries in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage and create multiple values of economic development, social justice and environmental protection. But despite the importance of this issue, there is a lack of scientific research in this field as well as the design and development of circular business models as a transition economy tool in our country. Based on this, the purpose of this research is to design a circular economy business model for knowledge-based companies. This research is exploratory and fundamental-applied in terms of its purpose, and in terms of data collection, it is mixed research that analyzes information in the first (qualitative) stage of systematic foundation data theory and in the second (quantitative) stage of structural equation method.‌ In this research, 8724 initial open codes were identified, which were divided into ‌118 open codes,‌ 17 axial codes (stakeholders, value network, material and immaterial resources, key activities, revenue structure, cost structure, environmental conditions and external factors, input requirements and internal factors, user sector,‎end of consumption period, distribution channels, ‌customer relationship,‌value creation, value acquisition, value delivery,‌value proposition), and ‌6 selected codes (ecosystem, processes, financial structure, feasibility, user interface, value) that was divided in the framework of the paradigmatic model and the axial phenomenon (multiple values). In addition, the results of this study enable entrepreneurs to design a more appropriate executive framework for their business based on multiple values and common stakeholders using the circular economy business model