The current linear economy focuses on a ‘take-make-use-dispose’ paradigm, prioritizing ‘volume-over-value’. Significant planning and experimentation are needed to understand how to develop new business models that are not only ‘circular’, but also desirable for people, technically feasible and financially viable. More insight is needed into the practices of business experimentation to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. We investigate the following: What types of experimentation practices do companies adopt in the transition to a circular business model? Our analysis is based on action research with over 40 organizations. Based on this, we provide an overview of business experimentation practices inside a diverse range of organizations and possible tools, approaches and lessons learned. Recommendations focus on the practices, process, environmental impact assessment, partnering and management of complexity in future tools and methods. We also propose a framework for circular business experimentation and future research directions.

Circular oriented innovation aims to address sustainability problems such as resource scarcity, pollution and climate change by (re)designing industrial products, processes, business models, and value network configurations. Although the literature identifies collaboration as crucial for circular oriented innovation—due to the complexity, risk and uncertainties involved—few tools have been developed to support it. To address this gap, we develop and test a tool that helps companies ideate to identify partners and value within circular oriented innovation. The tool integrates decision-making principles from the entrepreneurship theory of effectuation within a design thinking approach to stimulate collaborative ideation of circular propositions. We demonstrate and test the tool through six workshops, and collect data via observations, field-notes, assessment forms and user discussions. Our results show that: 1) users are receptive to visualisation and effectuation-based questions to collaboratively ideate circular propositions; 2) expert facilitation helps to maintain a circularity focus to avoid ‘business-as-usual’ ideas; and 3) differences in the maturity and scope of projects may influence the usefulness of the tool. We contribute to theory by demonstrating the integration of effectuation, design thinking, and lean experimentation approaches into a tool to advance circular oriented innovation. We contribute to practice with the tool itself that supports early and quick ideation to identify partners and perceived value. This supports companies to collaborate and advance the design of circular propositions that bring circular business model ideas closer to implementation.

Circular oriented innovation commonly requires collaboration. Yet, to date, circular research lacks empirical investigation into collaborative processes. Collaborative processes are, however, highly researched within strategic management literature, thus offering valuable insights. The purpose of this paper is to investigate, identify and order the processes that companies undertake when designing and implementing collaborations for circular oriented innovation. Firstly, we integrate disparate strategic management literature to identify collaborative process ‘know-how’ and relevant ‘building blocks’. Secondly, we generate practice-based insights, via semi-structured interviews and desk-research, across three research cycles to understand how companies collaborate within circular oriented innovation. Theoretical contributions stem from the assessment and integration of strategic management collaborative process knowledge into the circular context. Managerial contributions derive from the process model that describes how to build collaborative circular oriented innovation. Furthermore, the principal result is the empirical investigation and identification of collaborative circular oriented innovation challenges. Challenges relate to how to; 1) formulate an initial ‘circular proposition’, 2) involve the ‘right’ people, 3) align upon a shared circular purpose, 4) develop circular oriented governance and decision-making, and 5) develop a circular oriented value capture model focused on collective outcomes. These form the basis for our proposed future research agenda. This research agenda aims to stimulate researchers and practitioners to further demystify collaborative processes to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.

Next to the redesign of industrial products and processes, sustainable business model innovation is a strategic approach to integrate environmental and social concerns into the objectives and operations of organizations. One of the major challenges of this approach is that many promising business model ideas fail to reach the market, which is needed to achieve impact. In the literature, the issue is referred to as a “design-implementation gap.” This paper explores how that critical gap may be bridged. In doing so, we contribute to sustainable business model innovation theory and practice. We contribute to theory by connecting sustainable business model innovation with business experimentation and strategic design, two innovation approaches that leverage prototyping as a way to iteratively implement business ideas early on. Using a design science research methodology, we combine theoretical insights from these three literatures into a tool for setting up small-scale pilots of sustainable business models. We apply, evaluate, and improve our tool through a rigorous process by working with nine startups and one multinational company. As a result, we provide normative theory in terms of the sustainable business model innovation process, explaining that piloting a prototype forces organizations to simultaneously consider the desirability (i.e., what users want), feasibility (i.e., what is technically achievable), viability (i.e., what is financially possible), and sustainability (i.e., what is economically, socially and environmentally acceptable) of a new business model. Doing so early on is functional to bridge the design-implementation gap of sustainable business models. We contribute to practice with the tool itself, which organizations can use to translate sustainable business model ideas defined “on paper” into small-scale pilots as a first implementation step. We encourage future research building on the limitations of this exploratory study by working with a larger sample of companies through longitudinal case studies, to further explain how these pilots can be executed successfully.

Circular business model experiments may help firms transition towards a circular economy. Little is known about how the participants of experimentation – entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, innovation managers – develop and test their assumptions during the experimentation process to achieve more circular outcomes. Using a design-science approach, we investigate this process and develop principles to improve it. This is done during three workshops in different contexts: an innovation festival with 14 early-stage circular startups, a workshop with a health technology incumbent, and a workshop with six growth-oriented startups. We find that analyzing their available means – what they find important and prefer to happen (part of their identity), what they know (their skills and knowledge), and whom they know (their social network) – helps to understand how the participants develop and test their assumptions. We show how the mindset and awareness of the participants impact how much attention they pay to the circularity potential of their envisioned circular business models. Based on these insights, we propose a set of principles to prepare the innovation participants for experimentation, and to increase their ability to reflect on their circularity assumptions. Future research is needed to further grow our understanding of the types of principles that can guide meaningful experimentations towards a circular economy.

Collaborative innovation is necessary to explore and implement circular economy strategies. Yet, empirical investigations into such collaborations are scarce. It is unclear whether the circular context creates differences or represents adaptions within how collaborative innovation is conducted. We draw upon strategic management and open innovation literature to highlight what is known about collaborative innovation and the types of innovation conducted. We use these insights to investigate explorative qualitative case research into how practitioners in the Netherlands have conducted collaborative circular oriented innovation. Our findings show that open innovation criteria can aid our understanding and analysis. Key managerial considerations relate to the incremental or systemic nature of the innovation pursued, which induce different collaborative projects and knowledge management structures. For incremental innovation, we observe phases of collaboration, whereas for more systemic innovation, we observe a more collaborative portfolio and layered approach. Furthermore, the more radical innovation pursuits that explore slowing or recovery strategies, especially beyond business-to-business arrangements, challenge companies. A crucial challenge remains related to how to develop and assess collaborative and system-oriented business models in the transition towards a circular economy. Finally, future research is needed to assess whether the current modes of collaborative innovation are sufficient to deliver a circular economy transition.

We investigate why companies collaborate within the circular oriented innovation process. The purpose is to understand what motives trigger collaborative circular oriented innovation, as well as conditions, drivers and barriers. First, we define circular oriented innovation building on sustainable oriented innovation literature. Subsequently, we investigate 11 leading circular economy companies operating within the Netherlands, who developed collaborative circular oriented innovation activities. 'Hard' and 'soft' dimensions for innovation are identified and applied to delineate the drivers and barriers for collaborative circular oriented innovation. Our findings indicate that collaborations are conducted by entrepreneurially-minded actors through sharing a vision, enthusiasm, and crucially, a credible proposition for a circular economy. Furthermore, collaboration is sought early, to co-develop the problem and solution space and integrate disparate knowledge from across the value network, to mitigate increased complexity. Motives to collaborate vary between personal and organisational, and intrinsic and extrinsic levels. Collaborations start based on a relational basis between 'CE front-runners' to advance knowledge through experimentation. 'Soft' challenges to advance collaborations towards the competitive remain around culture, and the mindset to share rewards and risks. Without suitable solutions to these challenges, collaborative circular oriented innovation could remain underdeveloped within the transition towards the systemic level.

This chapter presents emerging work on mapping collaborative activities related to Circular Business Model (CBM) implementation. Findings pertain to the importance of collaboration presenting specific types demonstrated while pursuing CBMs. Future research areas are highlighted to explore potential impacts of collaboration upon CBMs. Collaboration is essential to simultaneously ensuring economic, environmental and social performance throughout a product’s life cycle(s). This chapter addresses the following question: What types of collaboration are presented by companies pursuing Circular Business Models? Companies developing CBMs, a subcategory of sustainable business models, explore life cycle perspectives through aspiring to slow and close resource loops. The required system change is beyond individual companies and requires transition towards inter-organisational collaborative networks. Collaboration, although vital, is also described as “opaque”, an “amorphous meta-concept”, and a “black box”. Collaboration is therefore a highly diverse and expansive concept, explored here within the specific focus to its implications and interactions upon CBMs. A literature study combining research fields of CBMs and collaboration within sustainable supply chain management was conducted. Specific types of collaboration crucial to CBMs are presented. These are applied through a proposed framework to describe eight Dutch companies pursuing CBMs. Their collaborative processes are analysed through pattern matching and cross-case analysis. Based on this, initial characteristics of the collaborative activities that are linked to CBMs are proposed.

The circular economy (CE) aims to radically improve resource efficiency by eliminating the concept of waste and leading to a shift away from the linear take-make-waste model. In a CE, resources are flowing in a circular manner either in a biocycle (biomass) or technocycle (inorganic materials). While early studies indicate that 3D printing (3DP) holds substantial promise for sustainability and the creation of a CE, there is no guarantee that it will do so. There is great uncertainty regarding whether the current trajectory of 3DP adoption is creating more circular material flows or if it is leading to an alternative scenario in which less eco-efficient localised production, demands for customised goods, and a higher rate of product obsolescence combine to bring about increased resource consumption. It is critical that CE principles are embedded into the new manufacturing system before the adoption of 3DP reaches a critical inflection point in which negative practices become entrenched. This paper, authored by both academic and industry experts, proposes a research agenda to determine enablers and barriers for 3DP to achieve a CE. We explore the two following overarching questions to discover what specific issues they entail: (1) How can a more distributed manufacturing system based on 3DP create a circular economy of closed-loop material flows? (2) What are the barriers to a circular 3D printing economy? We specifically examine six areas—design, supply chains, information flows, entrepreneurship, business models and education—with the aim of formulating a research agenda to enable 3DP to reach its full potential for a CE.