IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v9y2019i4p92-d292728.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Call to Integrate Economic, Social and Environmental Motives into Guidance for Business Support for the Transition to a Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Anne P. M. Velenturf

    (School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Paul D. Jensen

    (School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Phil Purnell

    (School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Juliet Jopson

    (School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Norman Ebner

    (Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

Abstract

A broad range of organizations, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large multi-nationals, are interested in adopting circular economy practices. A circular economy can help companies make better use of materials by minimizing the input of natural resources, reducing waste, and optimizing the economic, social, technical and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products throughout their lifecycle. Despite the interest of companies in a circular economy, only 9% of material flows in the global economy are circular. There is formal guidance for those offering business support with the aim to expedite the transition to a circular economy. However, support measures narrowly confine the role of companies and the motivations of business managers to the economic realms, assuming that companies are solely driven by monetary factors. Conversely, pluralist economic views emphasize the broader role of companies in society: for example, in respect of the well-being of their staff and the communities in which they reside. Indeed, our practical experiences of business support have brought alternative motivations to explore a circular economy to the fore. We argue that business support should stem from a broader conception of the role of business in society. The diverse motivations and willingness of business managers to engage in a circular economy should be investigated further with results feeding into broader and more inclusive business support guidelines in the future to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne P. M. Velenturf & Paul D. Jensen & Phil Purnell & Juliet Jopson & Norman Ebner, 2019. "A Call to Integrate Economic, Social and Environmental Motives into Guidance for Business Support for the Transition to a Circular Economy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:92-:d:292728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/9/4/92/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/9/4/92/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew J. Hoffman & Charles J. Corbett & Nitin Joglekar & Peter Wells, 2014. "Special Feature on Industrial Ecology as a Source of Competitive Advantage," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(5), pages 597-602, October.
    2. Walter R. Stahel, 2016. "The circular economy," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7595), pages 435-438, March.
    3. Alberto Simboli & Raffaella Taddeo & Anna Morgante, 2014. "Value and Wastes in Manufacturing. An Overview and a New Perspective Based on Eco-Efficiency," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Frederick R. Post, 2003. "A Response to ÒThe Social Responsibility of Corporate Management: A Classical CritiqueÓ," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 18(1), pages 25-36.
    5. Vincent Moreau & Marlyne Sahakian & Pascal Griethuysen & François Vuille, 2017. "Coming Full Circle: Why Social and Institutional Dimensions Matter for the Circular Economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 497-506, June.
    6. Robin Stevens & Nathalie Moray & Johan Bruneel, 2015. "The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1051-1082, September.
    7. Elaine Sternberg, 1997. "The Defects of Stakeholder Theory," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 3-10, January.
    8. Alan Murray & Keith Skene & Kathryn Haynes, 2017. "The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 369-380, February.
    9. Eleonora Foschi & Alessandra Bonoli, 2019. "The Commitment of Packaging Industry in the Framework of the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, February.
    10. Walter J.V. Vermeulen, 2015. "Self‐Governance for Sustainable Global Supply Chains: Can it Deliver the Impacts Needed?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 73-85, February.
    11. Víctor Amor-Esteban & Mª-Purificación Galindo-Villardón & Fátima David, 2018. "Study of the Importance of National Identity in the Development of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Multivariate Vision," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-33, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raffaella Taddeo, 2021. "Industrial Ecology and Innovation: At What Point Are We? Editorial for the Special Issue “Industrial Ecology and Innovation”," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-6, September.
    2. Petra Maresova & Ladislav Hajek & Ondrej Krejcar & Michael Storek & Kamil Kuca, 2020. "New Regulations on Medical Devices in Europe: Are They an Opportunity for Growth?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Aodhan Newsholme & Pauline Deutz & Julia Affolderbach & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2022. "Negotiating Stakeholder Relationships in a Regional Circular Economy: Discourse Analysis of Multi-scalar Policies and Company Statements from the North of England," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 783-809, June.
    4. Anna Barford & Saffy Rose Ahmad, 2021. "A Call for a Socially Restorative Circular Economy: Waste Pickers in the Recycled Plastics Supply Chain," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 761-782, September.
    5. Paul D. Jensen & Caroline Orfila, 2021. "Mapping the production-consumption gap of an urban food system: an empirical case study of food security and resilience," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(3), pages 551-570, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    2. Lucas Becerra & Sebastián Carenzo & Paula Juarez, 2020. "When Circular Economy Meets Inclusive Development. Insights from Urban Recycling and Rural Water Access in Argentina," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-21, November.
    3. Sabina Scarpellini, 2022. "Social impacts of a circular business model: An approach from a sustainability accounting and reporting perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 646-656, May.
    4. E. Sardianou & V. Nikou & K. Evangelinos & I. Nikolaou, 2024. "What are the key dimensions that CE emphasizes on? A systematic analysis of circular economy definitions," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 547-562, September.
    5. Katundu Imasiku & Valerie Thomas & Etienne Ntagwirumugara, 2019. "Unraveling Green Information Technology Systems as a Global Greenhouse Gas Emission Game-Changer," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-29, June.
    6. Ghinoi, Stefano & Silvestri, Francesco & Steiner, Bodo, 2020. "The role of local stakeholders in disseminating knowledge for supporting the circular economy: a network analysis approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Durán-Romero, Gemma & López, Ana M. & Beliaeva, Tatiana & Ferasso, Marcos & Garonne, Christophe & Jones, Paul, 2020. "Bridging the gap between circular economy and climate change mitigation policies through eco-innovations and Quintuple Helix Model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Anna Barford & Saffy Rose Ahmad, 2021. "A Call for a Socially Restorative Circular Economy: Waste Pickers in the Recycled Plastics Supply Chain," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 761-782, September.
    9. Gavin Melles, 2021. "Figuring the Transition from Circular Economy to Circular Society in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, September.
    10. Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Inés Suárez-Perales & Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz, 2019. "Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-15, March.
    11. Chembessi Chedrak & Gohoungodji Paulin & Juste Rajaonson, 2023. "“A fine wine, better with age”: Circular economy historical roots and influential publications: A bibliometric analysis using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1593-1612, December.
    12. Gilbert Silvius & Aydan Ismayilova & Vicente Sales-Vivó & Micol Costi, 2021. "Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.
    13. Frank Figge & Andrea Stevenson Thorpe & Siarhei Manzhynski & Melissa Gutberlet, 2022. "The us in reUSe. Theorizing the how and why of the circular economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2741-2753, September.
    14. Mariachiara Colucci & Alessandra Vecchi, 2021. "Close the loop: Evidence on the implementation of the circular economy from the Italian fashion industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 856-873, February.
    15. Alejandro Padilla-Rivera & Sara Russo-Garrido & Nicolas Merveille, 2020. "Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Hervé Corvellec & Alison F. Stowell & Nils Johansson, 2022. "Critiques of the circular economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(2), pages 421-432, April.
    17. Florian Lüdeke‐Freund & Stefan Gold & Nancy M. P. Bocken, 2019. "A Review and Typology of Circular Economy Business Model Patterns," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 36-61, February.
    18. José María Martín Martín & Sara Calvo Martínez & José Manuel Guaita Martínez & Domingo Enrique Ribeiro Soriano, 2022. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Qualitative analysis on the driving force behind upcycling practices associated with mobile applications: Circular economy perspective," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 647-661, December.
    19. Kirchherr, Julian & Reike, Denise & Hekkert, Marko, 2017. "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 221-232.
    20. Marlin Hoffman & Catherina J. Schenck & Frederick Herbst, 2022. "Exploring the Intersection Where Business Models, a Circular Economy and Sustainability Meet in the Waste Economy: A Scoping Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:92-:d:292728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.