While there is ample research on the barriers and enablers for implementing circular economy (CE) in large companies and developed economies, scant research exists concerning the factors impacting CE implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. To address this gap, our research seeks to determine the internal and external barriers SMEs face when implementing CE initiatives in emerging economies and identify how they can leverage CE implementation through bottom-up approaches. We present a multiple-case study of five SMEs in Mexico. Our findings suggest that the lack of regional enabling conditions and unsuitability between the CE business strategy and the context can further exacerbate implementation barriers. In this sense, we found that in our study’s unsuccessful case, the company failed to align its business to the particularities of the markets where it operated. Contrary, successful initiatives adopted strategies that incorporated contextual attributes in their business models, such as available infrastructure, current regulations, or consumer characteristics. Our results provide lessons from both failing and successful CE initiatives implemented by SMEs in an emerging economy. This work intends to help practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to create the required enabling conditions to accelerate the transition toward a CE in these regions.

Sustainable development is a major concern for developing and developed economies as economic growth has to led to scarcer and more expensive resources. Although countries have established public policies focusing on resource and energy efficiency, there is an increasing need for a coordinated industrial strategy able to create sustainable wealth through a holistic management of natural resources, capable of "decoupling" economic growth from resource extraction and natural deterioration. Consequently, the objective of the present research is to develop a decoupling model able to create increasing economic returns, reducing the social gap and regenerating the natural capital for regions in developing countries. Departing from a literature review on peer reviewed articles on successful industrial cases of decoupling around the world, we contrasted the linear production model with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)'s current four decoupling indicators in order to propose a more robust model. The result was an eight-factor decoupling model that used a well-supported framework for sustainable wealth creation named "circular value ecosystem" (CVES). By using system dynamics, we deployed the proposed framework using system dynamics modeling in order to improve the understanding of our proposal. We found that this model, with the proper regional conditions in developing countries, can: (1) reduce, through substitution, the consumption of natural resources; (2) produce alternative economic increasing returns; (3) reduce the negative environmental impacts; and (4) create self-sustainable wealth for the economy, the environment, and the social development of most stakeholders of these regions. Decoupling economic growth represents a complex and challenging task whose successful implementation can only be achieved if managed at a regional level with a systemic approach.

RESUMENLa presente investigación se centra en el estudio de los efectos que tienen el involucramiento docente, el involucramiento de padres familia y la gestión institucional en el logro escolar. Para su realización se trabajó con las bases de datos de la Evaluación Nacional de Logros Académicos en Centros Escolares (prueba ENLACE 2012) y el cuestionario CONTEXTO 2012 de alumnos de cuarto y sexto grado de escuelas generales (públicas) de México, controlando por variables socioeconómicas y culturales. El análisis constató que tanto el involucramiento docente como el de padres de familia afectan positivamente el logro académico, siendo el involucramiento docente una de las variables escolares con mayor influencia. Por su parte, ninguna de las variables de gestión institucional resulta significativa. Al indagar si la gestión institucional y el interés de padres de familia afectan los logros escolares por medio de elevar el involucramiento docente, se aprecia que mientras el mayor interés de los padres de familia eleva el involucramiento docente, únicamente los beneficios individuales otorgados a los docentes tienen este efecto. Se concluye con una reflexión en torno a la no significancia de las restantes variables de gestión institucional que, de acuerdo con la literatura especializada, son centrales en la mejora escolar.Palabras clave: estatus socioeconómico y cultural, gestión institucional, involucramiento docente, involucramiento de padres de familia, logro escolar.

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