Circular economy (CE) is gaining interest among industrial firms in light of sustainability concerns, and several incumbent firms are integrating it into their strategy. In this study, we scrutinize learnings from three large established industrial firms with a clear CE agenda and that are front‐runners in CE strategy deployment. We analyze exploitation and exploration approaches to CE and problematize how these approaches relate to radical innovation, which we argue is critical for achieving CE. Semi‐structured interviews ( n  = 30) were used to collect data. We found several issues referring to (1) challenges and approaches to normative management, (2) how the innovation ecosystem is engaged, (3) how goals and metrics relate to CE, and (4) resources and coordination regarding the CE initiative. Overall, current exploitative approaches are favored over explorative, mirroring an undesired imbalance between the two. We suggest several ways to counteract this. For example, (1) addressing existing norms so that they align with the ambitions in CE, (2) actively managing collaboration in the innovation ecosystem, including radically new setups of different actors, and (3) that managers need to carefully consider when and how to use goals and measurements in a circular strategy deployment, to foster both radical and incremental innovation.

Barriers to access-based consumption (ABC) have been extensively studied in different strands of literature. However, cumulative knowledge is not organized to date, and a comprehensive overview of barriers identified by empirical studies in diverse strands is lacking. Such a picture is essential for laying the ground for further change-oriented research and actual changes in practice. This article reports on the results of a systematic review on barriers to transitioning from ownership- to access-based consumption. The review focuses on the literature strands product-service systems, circular economy, sharing economy, and collaborative consumption. Through open and axial coding of 289 barriers reported in 45 empirical studies, we found 17 themes of barriers concerning consumers, business, and society. The analysis of the barriers reveals four significant insights important for the research and practitioner community:

1. the overall experience of ABC and trust mechanisms need to be better understood;
2. organizational aspects in traditional business need a system change;
3. regulation plays a fundamental role in making ABC work for business, society, and sustainability; and
4. sharing risks and experimentation for new learnings are necessary.

These four major insights suggest that consumers need business and government to offer enabling conditions for ABC – spanning from raising awareness and understanding to improving user experience. Furthermore, businesses need governments to create the necessary structures to support ABC offerings – from decreasing risks to increasing incentives. How and which mechanisms can further facilitate circular behaviors is a salient topic for future investigations.

A circular economy (CE) transition poses new challenges and opportunities for industrial incumbents. When implementing CE, the existing processes, routines, and behaviors are questioned. As such, practitioners must consider the required changes related directly to CE and contextual factors in managing the transition. For this purpose, this study conceptualizes a maturity model, highlighting critical elements to consider to facilitate the transition. The model builds on both state-of-the-art literature in CE and empirical findings from three large industrial firms.

The proposed model consists of the CE practices:

• (1) design of product-service systems,
• (2) processes and logistics in manufacturing and supply,
• (3) circular business model innovation,
• (4) circular innovation in the ecosystem,

and the management practices:

• (1) strategic sustainability integration and
• (2) management controls.

The model is intended to help practitioners define a CE roadmap to facilitate the transition towards a more circular business.

Pursuing sustainability implies setting a multitude of open-ended goals to address environmental and socioeconomic issues today as well as those for future generations. The circular economy (CE) paradigm appears more focused regarding goals and agency to address environmental issues by using the economic system. However, companies and governments aiming to operationalize CE in practice, it has been claimed, will face six key challenges limiting the CE “net sustainability impact” potential. This work focuses on the challenges for manufacturers to adopt and operationalize CE for their business. The two key levers for manufacturers to navigate on their path from the linear (take-make-dispose) to a sustainable CE are innovating and designing of the business model and of their products. To date, however, understanding the role of product design in developing circular business models has received little attention in research. This review article builds upon the CE literature foundation, including definitions, challenges, and business modeling frameworks needed to better understand the role of product design. Building on the work of several highly cited CE-centric literature reviews and voices in research and industry, we selected and merged complementing frameworks: Slowing-Closing-Narrowing, Circular Design, and the Circular Business Model Innovation framework. To understand how to put these frameworks into practice, we analyzed CE's links with electric vehicle and white goods research and industry perspectives respectively and collectively. The review and analysis of CE and selected industries’ research was supported by a co-occurrence keyword analysis of 5,960 most cited papers in CE as well as the two product categories, electric vehicles and white goods. The analysis indicated limited maturity and linkage of circular business models and role of product design toward a CE in the research literature for the product categories. This result corroborated the knowledge gap and guided our focus in searching for further research and industry clues. We structured the clues of interest that were specific to or common across product categories and industries, using the integrated framework to visualize our Design for X conclusion. The merged framework visualizes how paths toward CE by design and logic of value creation, delivery, and capturing may differ. To conclude, the authors’ own experience and literature examples from relevant industry-leading and start-up companies are used to apply the framework and reveal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Future research and industry experiments focused on the circular business models based on product service systems and design for CE strategies identified, will be needed to test and extend the framework to other product categories and industry sectors.

Reusing material products via peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing is one of the circular economy (CE) strategies to fulfil consumer needs with minimised environmental impact and material consumption. However, adopting sharing practices challenges both societal normative behaviours as well as existing business models businesses. Previous studies grounded on stated answers about values, intentions and attitudes of users found several factors that impede the practice of sharing, even though users' needs were said to be satisfied. Nevertheless, few studies have looked at dilemmas that users face while engaging in sharing practices and how these inhibit their participation in CE solutions. This study addresses these discrepancies empirically in the context of P2P product sharing. Using a trust-ownership-need model, we investigated users' reviews (n=415) from an online P2P product sharing platform operating in Sweden and Norway. The data analysis method is a qualitative content analysis of the users' comments (from lessors or lessees). The results reveal the dilemmas that the platform users experience, i.e., information transparency, product pick-up and return arrangements, product quality, security, and user knowledge to operate the product. We argue that missing social presence in the virtual environment, low competence in sharing practice from lessees, and lax platform governance are contributing factors underlying the dilemmas. The research concludes with strategies for promoting user participation in sharing practice and optimising platforms to pursue CE's environmental promises.

This study examines the link between selected indicators of a circular economy, including essential components of environmental and economic growth. Developed economies are continuously innovating to promote growth and giving governmental support to the producers to move from linear economies to circular ones. Hence, waste materials in industrial systems are recycled or re-used, improving the efficiency of using finite resources with the no-waste approach. The aim of this paper is the following: (1) to identify the main components of a circular economy, which are also supportive of sustainability and development; (2) to check the impact of these variables in the economic growth of European Union countries; (3) to find out if the three components of sustainable development adopted to circular economy (CE) indicators (environmental-social-economic) are significant to economic growth. We used a fixed effect panel data analysis to identify the circular economy's impact on the economic growth of European countries. Additionally, to support the results of the regression analysis, we employed a second method-generalized methods of moments-computing the Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data estimation method. The model included five independent variables, such as environmental tax rate, a recycling rate of waste, private investment and jobs in a circular economy, patents related to recycling, and trade of recyclable raw materials. The identification of each variable was made based on a deep search through literature. The results of both econometric models showed a strong and positive correlation between a circular economy to economic growth, highlighting the crucial role of sustainability, innovation, and investment in no-waste initiatives to promote wealth.

In the context of an initiative to become a carbon neutral campus, an online survey (N = 1864) of students, scientists, and administrative and technical staff of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) was conducted to measure pro-environmental behaviors and potentially influential factors. Female gender, age, and position (from bachelor's student, master's student, doctoral student, postdoc/senior scientist to professor) showed a significant positive correlation with positive behaviors as measured by a pro-environmental behavior scale developed for this study. Excluded from the academic position ranking were the members of technical and administrative staff, who displayed the highest level of pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, the level of pro-environmental behavior was generally higher among members of strongly environmentally-oriented university subsections as compared to other sections. Based on previous research and theories on environmental behavior, such as the theory of planned behavior, a predictive model including psychological, structural, and demographic variables was developed and accounted for 44% of the variance of pro-environmental behavior scores. Among psychological variables, the strongest positive influence was observed for green self-identity. Willingness to sacrifice, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and perceived effects were also significantly positively related to positive behavior. Future behavioral decision-making models should consider these variables accordingly. The position of the participants was significantly positively correlated with green self-identity, suggesting positive education and socialization effects, but negatively correlated with perceived behavioral control, pointing to practical constraints coincident with professional seniority.

Resource-optimization platforms appear as a valid option to more sustainable modes of consumption. The success of these platforms mostly depends on the capability to comprehend the potential users’ motives for engagement. We developed and tested a conceptual model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to investigate the relative significance of consumer motives for and against using a peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing platform. Qualitative interviews of an elicitation study (n=7) followed a quantitative survey (n=325) with potential users. The size of the demand for accessing specific products and services and the type of transaction mode preferred were also investigated. Attitude towards using a P2P sharing platform is the strongest predictor of behavioural intention among the TPB constructs. Ecological sustainability, sense of belonging, trust in other users, and familiarity are the most critical factors determining the attitude towards using the potential platform; process risk concerns were identified as the main hinder. There were more providers than takers to all likely items enquired, and accommodation and car-sharing had the most significant asymmetric ratios remarkably. Services in general and study materials were the items with the highest potential demand and supply. The preferred mode of exchange for the platform is a free system which includes donation and second-hand sales, and transfer of points or money. This study contributes to a better understanding of consumer motivations and desires to engage in sharing resources for sustainability transformations.

The sharing economy (SE) has drawn significant attention from several society stakeholders in the last five years. While business actors are interested in financial opportunities to meet consumer needs, new business models, academia and governmental organisations are concerned with potential unintended effects on society and the environment. Despite its notable global growth, there is still a lack of more solid ground in understanding its origins and respective mechanisms through which it has been evolving as a category. This research addresses the problematics of the origins and ascendency of the SE by examining the process by which it is arising as a new category, searching for conceptual clarification, and pinpointing the legitimacy granted by stakeholders. Our guiding research questions are: how the SE was formed and evolved as a category, and as a category, is the SE legitimate? Additionally, we attempt to identify the nature of the SE as a category. Making a historical analysis of the expression SE and its equivalents, this paper deepens the discussion about the SE's nature by providing evidence that it has predominantly been formed by emergence processes, comprising social movement, similarity clustering, and truce components, which render the SE a particular case of category formation and allow communication, entrepreneurship, regulation, and research about what it is. Moreover, the findings reveal a generalised legitimacy granted to the SE by a vast number of stakeholders, although still lacking the consolidation of socio-political legitimation. The SE's nature seems to fall into a metaphorical approach, notably, the notion of radial categories.