Towards a circular economy - how business model innovation will help to make the shift

Abstract

The overall aim of this paper is to develop a new conceptual framework for the role of business models in a circular economy. The shift towards a circular economy will be mandatory in order to sustain growth despite the limited amount of resources on our earth. Yet, a fundamental understanding of the business models needed to achieve this goal is still missing. Reviewing existing research as well as professional and for-business publications, the author develops a conceptual model by clustering and abstraction. The first part of this paper demonstrates that, despite wording differences, a predominant agreement on a basic structure for new business models in a circular economy has emerged in the field. The second part develops a conceptual model for the transition towards a circular economy by introducing a hierarchical structure of new business models. By outlining the roadmap towards result-oriented business models, this structure will contribute to a faster transition into a circular economy.

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