Towards territorial product-service systems: A framework linking resources, networks and value creation

While many models for sustainable product-service systems (PSS) integrate the multi-actor perspective, few provide insights on how the territory in which actors implement the system influences its sustainability. This paper explores the implementation of a territorial PSS at a city or regional scale as a means to structuring value networks and enhancing its sustainability potential. The research combines a multidisciplinary literature review with two exploratory sustainable PSS cases in packaging and cloth baby diapers. The paper proposes a framework explaining how sustainable PSS providers develop territorial networks that consider a diversity of actors from civil, industrial, and public spheres to mobilize resources for value creation at organizational, network, and territorial levels. It identifies contextual factors, such as proximity, social embeddedness of relations, and the visions that influence the consolidation and sustainability of the territorial PSS networks. The empirical cases show the development of territorial networks enhances embed social relations among actors and enables the sustainable PSS concept to adapt to locally articulated sustainability principles and priorities. The paper discusses the implications of this approach for PSS for sustainability managers and designers. The study fills a gap by showing the importance of integrating a diversity of territorial actors as a pre-condition for PSS to contribute to the sustainability transitions and resilience of territories. Future research may validate the proposed framework and focus on identifying opportunities and barriers for the territorial PSS approach in different contexts such as industries and company sizes

Framing and assessing the emergent field of business model innovation for the circular economy: A combined literature review and multiple case study approach

Widespread adoption of sustainable and circular business models is required to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable society, however, the literature supporting the process of Business Model Innovation for the Circular Economy - or Circular Business Model Innovation (CBMI) - is currently emerging. Several publications on this field have been published since 2014, nevertheless, there is still a lack of understanding on the process of CBMI, particularly for incumbent firms; and, as most of the literature is theoretical, further empirical insights are required. Furthermore, there is a need for an updated and comprehensive review of this fast-paced field, and a need to further integrate the CBMI field with the conventional Business Model Innovation (BMI) domain. The present research aims to first, map and frame the field of CBMI, building upon the structure of the conventional BMI field; second, to assess the current state of research of the field, proposing a future research agenda; and third, to explore the most relevant elements of the CBMI process in the practice. The article uses a combined literature and multiple case study approach. It begins by synthesizing a BMI framework, which is then combined with the findings of a systematic literature review (n=84) on the emergent CBMI field, to propose an original framework that structures the field. The review includes an assessment per article on the state-of-research. The framework is then illustrated through a multiple case study on ten incumbent firms that have implemented a substantial CBMI, revealing which topics are more relevant from a practice perspective and offering valuable empirical insights. We suggest that future research should prioritize those topics that are very important from the practice and still un- or under-researched in the CBMI field (i.e. organizational culture and structure as moderators of the CBMI change process, sustainability strategy as an antecedent of CBMI and top management role as key elements of the CBMI process) and to those identified as important though under-researched (i.e. organizational change management as a key element of the CBMI process; organizational inertia, ambidexterity and CBMI uncertainties as moderators of the CBMI process; and systemic change as an effect of the CBMI). The literature on Sustainable BMI is integrated to propose contributions to the identified gaps. This research contributes by framing and assessing the field of CBMI, proposing a future research agenda, providing a detailed literature state-of-research assessment and by further integrating CBMI with the conventional BMI field

How do incumbent firms innovate their business models for the circular economy? Identifying micro‐foundations of dynamic capabilities

The circular economy is promoted as a contributor to sustainable development; however, the process of circular business model innovation remains under-explored to date, hindering its implementation. Dynamic capabilities research provides a theoretical perspective to explore how incumbent firms can innovate in rapidly changing environments. An abductive qualitative research is done through an exploratory multiple case study on 10 incumbents that implemented a circular business model innovation. We identify 26 practices, aggregated in 12 micro-foundations of the dynamic capabilities of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. By integrating the few empirical studies characterizing dynamic capabilities for sustainability-oriented business model innovation, we offer a comprehensive framework of 33 practices. This study proposes that the most relevant practices for circular business model innovation processes are adopting a lifecycle perspective, employing sustainability-oriented instruments, ideating sustainable value propositions, developing a sustainability strategy and culture, and engaging and coordinating stakeholders in the business ecosystem. We also suggest seven particularly relevant practices for long-term business model transformations (e.g., top management commitment), four for innovations focused on short and medium loops of the circular economy (e.g., early customer engagement), and four for long loops (e.g., business ecosystem coordination). This study corroborates and expands recent research on dynamic capabilities for sustainability-oriented innovation and provides practitioners with a set of 33 skills, processes, procedures, and activities to be prioritized to successfully innovate their business models for the circular economy

Negotiating Stakeholder Relationships in a Regional Circular Economy: Discourse Analysis of Multi-scalar Policies and Company Statements from the North of England

Circular economy (CE) literature discusses the need for cooperation between different stakeholders to promote a CE; there is also an assumption regarding the benefits of loop closing on a local or regional scale. However, the potentially conflicting priorities, understandings, and expectations of the stakeholders involved have not been sufficiently addressed. Regional (or local) authorities have a responsibility to promote prosperity for stakeholders in their administrative region, within the constraints of national policy; conversely companies can have financial imperatives associated with stakeholders who may be globally distributed. Evidence of these conflicting priorities, the various positions stakeholder take, and their expectations of each other can be seen in the language choicesregional actors make in their public-facing policy and report documents. The aim of the paper is to consider the challenges for creating a regional-scale CE that might arise from the differing priorities and values of companies and public agencies relating to specific places. It uses discourse analysis (including critical approaches) to examine how policy and business documents represent the stakeholders of the CE, their place in it, their priorities, and, importantly, the relationship between CE actors, focusing on the case of North Humberside on the North East coast of England. The plans set out in these reports are designed for external stakeholders and allow us to gain an insight into company and policy thinking in relation to CE developments in the coming years, including how they view each other’s roles. Findings indicate a shared motivation across scales and sectors for the CE as a means towards sustainable growth within which business plays a central role. However, there is a critical double disjuncture between different visions for implementation. First, between policy scales, a regional-scale CE is prioritised by regional policymakers, who have an interest in economic advantage being tied to a specific place and call for national scale support for their actions. Second, between regional policymakers and business, companies focus on their own internal operations and potential supply chain collaborations, with littleattention given to the regional scale. This can be seen in the way organisations represent the actors of a nascent CE differently. In addition, a hegemonic business-focused growth discourse excludes other visions of the CE; the public are relegated to a passive role primarily as consumers and recipients of under-specified “opportunities” of wealth creation. CE theorisations need to incorporate and address these critical perspectives in order to support the development of strategies to overcome them

Sustainable product development in a circular economy: Implications for products, actors, decision-making support and lifecycle information management

The concept of circular economy (CE) is of great interest for manufacturing companies since it provides a framework which allows them to align organisational objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Corporate CE entails the adoption of several value-retention options (R-strategies) throughout companies’ operations, which aim at creating, preserving and recovering the value of assets and products. The sustainable product development (SPD) process, in which around 80% of the total environmental impact of a product is determined, is employed to translate R-strategies into new product requirements. This study is aimed at investigating the implications of R-strategy adoption for decision-making in SPD. The research follows an empirical approach, combining a literature review and in-depth semi-structured interviews with product developers and sustainability experts working in companies operating in the technical material cycles of the CE. Thus, implications for product dimensions, inter- and intraorganisational actors, decision-making support types and lifecycle information flows so that SPD processes further accommodate CE principles into products are investigated. This study reveals new directions to adjust the contextual factors of SPD to further align existing processes with widely expanding CE organisational cultures

Exploring sustainable product development processes for a circular economy through morphological analysis

Over the last years, academic literature has made significant progress on the development of key concepts, identifying circular product typologies, developing assessment methods, and exploring the synergies with manufacturing trends such as digitalisation or environmental management. Nevertheless, less attention has been paid on describing process model changes necessary for the implementation of circular product development. For this reason, this paper presents the circular Sustainable Product Development (cSPD) morphological field, aimed at providing implementation guidance to business and industry. It describes possible reconfigurations of the Sustainable Product Development (SPD) process model to further integrate circularity R-strategies, design scopes, design guidelines, inter- and intra-organisational actors and criteria for evaluation. With this framework, we intend to identify the most defining parameters in the process model and assign them a discrete number of categorical values so that different combinations explain the generation of prevalent circular product typologies in the manufacturing of durable goods

The Circular Sprint: Circular business model innovation through design thinking

The process of developing sustainable and circular business models is quite complex and thus hinders their wider implementation in the market. Further understanding and guidelines for firms are needed. Design thinking is a promising problem solving approach capable of facilitating the innovation process. However, design thinking does not necessarily include sustainability considerations, and it has not been sufficiently explored for application in business model innovation. Given the additional challenges posed by the need for time-efficiency and a digital environment, we have therefore developed a design thinking-based framework to guide the early development of circular business models in an online and efficient manner. We propose a new process framework called the Circular Sprint. This encompasses seven phases and contains twelve purposefully adapted activities. The framework development follows an Action Design Research approach, iteratively combining four streams of literature, feedback from sixteen experts and six workshops, and involved a total of 107 participants working in fourteen teams. The present paper describes the framework and its activities, together with evaluations of its usefulness and ease-of-use. The research shows that, while challenging, embedding sustainability, circularity and business model innovation within a design thinking process is indeed possible. We offer a flexible framework and a set of context-adaptable activities that can support innovators and practitioners in the complex process of circular business model innovation. These tools can also be used for training and educational purposes. We invite future researchers to build upon and modify our framework and its activities by adapting it to their required scenarios and purposes. A detailed step-by-step user guide is provided in the supplementary material

Prediction of second neurological attack in patients with clinically isolated syndrome using support vector machines

The aim of this study is to predict the conversion from clinically isolated syndrome to clinically definite multiple sclerosis using support vector machines. The two groups of converters and non-converters are classified using features that were calculated from baseline data of 73 patients. The data consists of standard magnetic resonance images, binary lesion masks, and clinical and demographic information. 15 features were calculated and all combinations of them were iteratively tested for their predictive capacity using polynomial kernels and radial basis functions with leave-one-out cross-validation. The accuracy of this prediction is up to 86.4% with a sensitivity and specificity in the same range indicating that this is a feasible approach for the prediction of a second clinical attack in patients with clinically isolated syndromes, and that the chosen features are appropriate. The two features gender and location of onset lesions have been used in all feature combinations leading to a high accuracy suggesting that they are highly predictive. However, it is necessary to add supporting features to maximise the accuracy. © 2013 IEEE

Sustainable Development Goals and the Forest Sector—A Complex Relationship

The United Nations adopted the Agenda 2030 with its core element, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in September 2015. In order to achieve these goals within the coming years, intense efforts are required by all political and societal actors. Although the first definitions of sustainable development referred to the forest sector, the question remains: what contribution can forestry make to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals? Therefore, the direct positive and negative effects of forestry itself on sustainability are analyzed, and it is discussed how sustainable forest management could contribute to achieving other Sustainable Development Goals in addition to SDG 15. This analysis reveals that forestry plays a dual role, i.e., forestry can achieve positive sustainability effects but can also have negative impacts. It is thus recommended to use integrated assessment approaches to analyze whether a specific forest-related policy or strategy is contributing to sustainable development. Beside quantitative integrated assessments, the use of qualitative frameworks like the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development is proposed. It is also suggested to operationalize the concept of second-order sustainability performance for the forest sector in future research