Eco-innovation and Circular Business Models as drivers for a circular economy

Abstract

<p>Eco-innovation is defined as any directed/oriented innovation aiming at reducing environmental impacts. Eco-innovation is not only a technology change; it also embraces organisational, social and system innovations. This systemic and complex thinking is necessary to understand the role of eco-innovation as an enabler of Circular Economy (CE). Circular Economy appears as a promising approach towards a sustainable transition from the linear socioeconomic paradigm. The objective of the Circular Economy is to maintain and to share value along the time. Eco-innovation for Circular Economy can be of technological and non-technological character. Indeed, it is acknowledged that CE needs to address important challenges regarding business models and socio-institutional frameworks, while technological change may not be necessarily radical. In order to pave the way to Circular Economy through eco-innovation, business models are considered a key driver. The business model is seen as a holistic approach towards the way of doing business. From the eco-innovation perspective, a business model needs to add ecological and social value to the value proposal and changing the producer and the consumer practices. In particular, eco-innovations with the potential to enable the transition to a resource-efficient circular economy model include efforts to change dominant business models (from new product and service design to reconfigured value chains, new/short supply chains), transform the way citizens interact with products and services (ownership, leasing, sharing, repairing, reducing, remanufacturing, etc.) and develop improved systems for delivering value (green mobility, smart energy systems, short supply chains, etc.).<strong></strong></p>

Resources, Collaborators, and Neighbors: The Three-Pronged Challenge in the Implementation of Bioeconomy Regions

“…Of particular interest are the questions of how and why social acceptance has changed. This will be a relevant factor for the success or failure of a regional bioeconomy and, in particular, for mainstreaming innovations in the biotechnology field [76,[85][86][87]. A major driver for boosting social acceptance will be the measures that help raise awareness of regional communities regarding the potential implications of the bioeconomy at different scales, i.e., the local, regional, and national scales [88][89][90].…”

Identifying Endogenous and Exogenous Indicators to Measure Eco-Innovation within Clusters

“…The questionnaire was designed to collect information on the factors that drive eco-innovation and to measure the incidence of each of the variables attached to the proposed factors. The questionnaire was measured using various items adapted from Hojnik and Ruzzier [31], from the final report to measure eco-innovation in SMEs proposed and validated by Kemp et al [25,26], as well as questions taken from the questionnaire of the Economic Commission for America Latina and the Caribbean (ECLAC) [15], from the study of the European cluster observatory by Barsoumian, Severin, and Spek [59], and also from the study developed in Chinese companies on the drivers of eco-innovation [44]. For the questionnaire, multiple element scales were implemented to measure each factor in the The proposed model provides a more specific insight into the drivers of eco-innovation.…”

“…Among the initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy, one of its main objectives is an industrial policy for globalization with efficient economic and environmental processes. Eco-innovative clusters serve to improve the conditions of companies and boost markets and their internationalization more quickly through sustainable policies [57][58][59]. However, it is important to identify the necessary factors to promote these types of activities, since there are few studies that propose an eco-innovation model that serves to potentiate sustainable economies.…”

Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour Using Behavioural Economics to Reduce and Access Small WEEE Anthropogenic Stocks

“…Urban mining is the process of reclaiming compounds and elements from any kind of anthropogenic stocks (Cossu and Williams, 2015). It can be associated with closed-loop supply chain management, specifically for (W)EEE management and material classification (Vence and Pereira, 2019). It is a useful construct that facilitates an assessment of secondary materials stocks within an urban environment since it delimits an area in which the type/amount of materials accessible at a fixed point in time can be recorded.…”