Circular economy business models as resilient complex adaptive systems

Abstract

Broad consensus seems to have emerged on the circular economy as a plausible and desirable solution to build prosperity while respecting ecological boundaries. However, its implementation in industry is slow paced. Whilst the systemic nature of the innovation required and barriers to implementation in complex sustainability transitions partially explain why this is the case, reflecting on the contribution of the growing scholarly literature on circular business models to orient management practice is also relevant. In fact, despite the existence of a fairly voluminous scholarly literature on the subject, practitioners are either uncertain or struggling about how to implement circular economy strategies and models. Using an integrative research approach to theory building and drawing on systems theory, this article proposes a resilient complex adaptive system view of circular business models. The resulting framework is a stepping-stone to overcoming conceptual ambiguities and construct fallacies in the way circular business models are typified.