Title
Initiating a Minimum Viable Ecosystem for Circularity
Author
Konietzko, Jan (Maastricht University School of Business and Economics)
Baldassarre, B.R. (TU Delft Responsible Marketing and Consumer Behavior)
Bocken, Nancy (Maastricht University School of Business and Economics)
Ritala, Paavo (LUT University)
Contributor
Ometto, A.R. (editor)
Date
2024
Abstract
To achieve a transformation toward the circular economy, organizations need to take an ecosystem perspective and consider multiple complementary actors that are needed to deliver circularity as a collective outcome. However, practitioners and scholars lack an understanding of the initial phases of ecosystem creation, in terms of how to get started, and what to consider. We therefore investigate how organizations can initiate an ecosystem for a circular economy. The method consists of a concise review of the ecosystem literature and three instrumental cases, to identify important activities that are needed when initiating an ecosystem for circularity. The cases include: (1) an alliance for circular safety footwear, (2) a startup that turns old coffee ground and orange peel waste from another company into new products, and (3) a multi-stakeholder project aimed at recovering resources from wastewater. We propose a framework for a Minimum Viable Ecosystem for Circularity (MVEC) that includes a set of key activities to perform when building ecosystems for a circular economy. These activities provide a useful roadmap for scholars and practitioners for establishing and assessing ecosystems for circularity. We call for further research and practical applications to test and demonstrate the utility of this framework in different contexts.
Subject
Business ecosystem
Circular business model
Circular economy
Ecosystem perspective
Systems thinking
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:40314424-c3c3-4bce-9910-d27dd7b72068
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55036-2_4
Publisher
Springer
Embargo date
2024-09-30
Source
A Systemic Transition to Circular Economy, 12
Series
Greening of Industry Networks Studies, 2543-0246, 12
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
book chapter
Rights
© 2024 Jan Konietzko, B.R. Baldassarre, Nancy Bocken, Paavo Ritala