The Role of Digital Technologies in a Data-driven Circular Business Model

Abstract

The Circular Economy (CE) has been identified as a promising solution for reducing emissions, waste, and achieving sustainable development goals while offering economic values for companies. However, the move towards CE requires managers and decision-makers to rethink and redesign their Business Models (BMs) incrementally or radically. In order to achieve proper decisions on resource usage, product designs, material flows, and recirculation of materials, data plays a significant role in CE. Accessible data is considered as an essential enabler of circular solutions and at the heart of circular business models. In this regard, digital transformation can offer innovative tools for efficient execution and sharing of data to help companies generating new business models and to increase their competitive advantages. This study explores different data-driven BMs enabled by digital technologies in CE.