Circular e-waste ecosystems in necessity-driven contexts: The impact of formal institutional voids

Recent studies suggest an ecosystem view is most appropriate for understanding the impact of institutional voids on entrepreneurial activities. Expanding the focus to the entrepreneurial ecosystem is crucial for tackling complex low- and middle-income countries' (LMICs) environmental challenges, as the transition to circular e-waste management, which are heavily impacted by the institutional environment. Moreover, most entrepreneurs in LMICs engage in circular practices out of economic necessity, rather than environmental reasons. However, scholars have overlooked the effects of institutional voids on entrepreneurial ecosystems' potential to grow and realize environmental benefits. This study investigates how formal institutional voids impact the evolution of circular ecosystems in necessity-driven contexts in LMICs. We study the evolution of a circular e-waste ecosystem in Kenya and uncover two key phases: emergence and growth. We show that formal institutional voids' impact differs across phases; regulatory and contract enforcement voids create opportunities for informal and private actors to establish e-waste collection, repair, remanufacture, and recycle businesses, thereby facilitating the emergence of the circular ecosystem. However, labor market, capital market, product market, regulatory, and contract enforcement voids hamper its growth. Specifically, the lack of skills, equipment, guidelines, and financial incentives hinders advanced repairs and remanufactures and limits recycling opportunities, while the lack of formal e-waste infrastructure increases illegal dumping and negatively impacts human health and the environment. We develop propositions and a phase model to explain the impact of formal institutional voids on the evolution of circular e-waste ecosystems and the realization of environmental benefits in necessity-driven contexts

Scaling inclusive business impacts at the Base of the Pyramid: A framework inspired by business model ecosystems research

Scaling the social impact of inclusive business models that provide solutions to basic needs of Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) communities through firm-centric approaches has proven challenging. Researchers have proposed that scaling strategies at the BoP should go beyond firm-centric approaches by inclusive businesses and involve coordinated synergistic action of their entire ecosystem to overcome systemic challenges and create value for all ecosystem actors. However, current research on this topic remains abstract and difficult to implement. This paper presents an empirically validated scaling framework designed to overcome this weakness and documents its design process. The framework takes account of the fact that inclusive businesses must work out scaling strategies together with key ecosystem actors, and that implementing a scaling strategy will almost always require mutual adaptation of business models. The framework design process entailed an extensive literature review and practitioner interviews as a first step, followed by testing, evaluation and iterative improvement through a series of validation workshops with actors of four inclusive business initiatives in Africa and Asia. The results indicate that the framework helps workshop participants to expand their mental frame, encouraging them to adopt a broader ecosystems perspective on scaling. This leads to identification and exploration of valuable business model adaptations for scaling that can be achieved through collaboration and assessment of the practical feasibility of different scaling strategies

Toward Accelerating Sustainability Transitions through Collaborative Sustainable Business Modeling: A Conceptual Approach

Sustainability transitions are purposeful and require deliberate collective action from multiple organizations, leading to the necessity to adopt new business models and redesign value networks. In both business model and sustainability transition research, the explicit activities needed to re-shape value creation and capture systems of organizations are largely unaddressed. We aim to fill this gap by proposing collaborative sustainable business modeling (CSBMing) as a participative multi-actor approach aimed at value network innovation to accelerate sustainability transitions. To do this, we first conceptualize a sustainability transition as a business ecosystem change. We then introduce the value network as the interceding level connecting the individual business to the wider ecosystem, which upon scaling, can change the ecosystem, leading to transition. CSBMing aims to redesign value networks and may thus be used as an actionable approach to accelerate transitions. Second, through the multi-level perspective, we explain how CSBMing can scale, influence other value networks, and change the ecosystem. Third, we recognize that scaling value networks might need more than just implementation of a CSBM and show how elements of CSBMing can complement executing transition management activities. We illustrate the potential role of CSBMing in accelerating transitions through two examples from the Dutch energy transition. In all, we show that CSBMing can be a fruitful approach to innovate and scale value networks, create collective action needed for sustainability transitions, and contribute to transition management activities

Collaborative business modelling to scale inclusive businesses in developing countries – a workshop based approach

Inclusive businesses providing services in areas like healthcare, water, energy, sanitation, and food must scale their outreach and impact in order to meet the needs of the world’s poor. In response to the substantial barriers that scaling usually entails, scholars have identified the need to focus on scaling strategies that strengthen and align the whole business ecosystem of inclusive businesses. This should be done through coordinated synergistic action, creating value not only for the inclusive business and poor communities themselves but also for other ecosystem actors such as NGOs, public and private actors. This paper develops a conceptual framework that supports the development of such collaborative scaling strategies in the light of the shortcomings of existing firm-centric scaling tools and methods. The framework takes account of the fact that inclusive businesses must work out scaling strategies together with their key partners, and that the implementation of such collaborative strategies will almost always require adaptation of business models. The framework therefore revolves around collaborative sustainable business modelling. The first version of the framework was designed by means of an extensive literature review and practitioner interviews. This initial version of the framework was evaluated and improved iteratively, involving a series of workshops with stakeholders of four inclusive business initiatives in Africa and Asia. The results indicate that the framework helps workshop participants to expand their mental frame, encouraging them to adopt a broader (eco)systems perspective on scaling. This leads to the identification and exploration of valuable business model adaptations for scaling that can be achieved through collaboration, and for the assessment of the practical feasibility of different scaling strategies