Circular Economy Business Models: The Complementarities with Sharing Economy and Eco-Innovations Investments

Abstract

The transition from the linear economy to the circular economy exhibits some criticalities that can be solved through the identification of factors pushing and pulling the transition itself. By adopting a public good perspective in analysing the main features of the circular business models, this study underlines how the sharing economy business models are well integrated and complementary to some features of the circular economy, representing a strong pulling factor. Other loops of the circular economy need an explicit push factor, individuated in a strong impulse to eco-efficiency, to be reached through consistent incentives to invest in R&D for eco-innovations. Seven case studies are investigated in their aims, feasibility and implementation to support the interpretative framework.

Pushing Forward the Transition to a Circular Economy by Adopting an Actor Engagement Lens

“…To pragmatically convince a focal actor, other actors in the ecosystem can refer to different measures that make circular offerings more attractive like take-back incentives (Cantú, Aguiñaga, and Scheel 2021; Arekrans et al 2022) and repairing services (Veleva and Bodkin 2018). Additionally, other actors may alleviate concerns about product quality and liability (Bodenheimer, Schuler, and Wilkening 2022) by referring to objective proofs of the innocuousness of circular offerings (Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin 2020), shifts of responsibility to suppliers (Okorie et al 2021), and guarantees, warranties, and certifications (Aldieri et al 2021; Todeschini et al 2017).…”

“…In this regard, different actors may benefit from financial support from governmental bodies (e.g., funding for sustainable industrial development—Feng and Lam 2021), customers (e.g., revenue flows from different target segments—Suchek et al 2021), and other stakeholders (e.g., fundraising—Hina et al 2022). In fact, a number of studies emphasize that a combination of private and public funding paves the way for circular economy engagement, for instance by financially supporting eco-innovation (Aldieri et al 2021). Other studies confirm that financial support allows actors to invest in operant (e.g., knowledge on second use for CBMs with effective product-service loops—Wrålsen et al 2021; CBM-related knowledge—Arekrans et al 2022) and operand resources (e.g., cleaner production technologies for CBMs with efficient material-technical loops—Wang and Li 2006) that serve the circular transition.…”

Impact of Innovation and Exports on Productivity: Are There Complementary Effects?

“…The first treatment variable is innovation, which is a dummy variable equal to 1 if a firm engages in either product, process, or product and process innovation jointly. Product innovation refers to introducing products or services that are either completely new to the market or feature significant improvements [69]. Process innovation captures the introduction of new methods of manufacturing products or offering services and substantial changes in logistics, delivery, distribution, or supporting activities [70].…”

The Influence of Eco-Investment on E-Waste Recycling-Evidence From EU Countries

“…This paper presented an analysis of Indonesian laws and regulations governing the implementation of eco-investment. Aldieri et al (2021) proposed a systematic classification of the main circular economy features in order to identify the best intervention areas for sharing economy models and ecoinnovation systems. Their three-step theoretical analysis was applied to seven particular case studies, highlighting one main conclusion: the main objective of policy makers must be increasing R&D investments focused on eco-innovations.…”