همکاری های شرکت های کارآفرین برای پیشبرد یک اقتصاد مدور Corporate-entrepreneur collaborations to advance a circular economy

1. Introduction The circular economy (CE) has recently been gaining traction in developed nations as an alternative to the dominant “take-make-waste” model of production and as a strategy to decouple economic growth from resource depletion. The European Union has led this movement by launching a national CE strategy and action plan with concrete waste reduction goals and measures of success (EC, 2017; Murray et. al., 2017). It is estimated that the circular economy will provide an economic opportunity of over $1 trillion as well as significant social and environmental benefits (WEF, 2016). This new economic paradigm requires innovation and new business models to advance zero waste production, product design, reuse and remanufacturing. Most research to date has focused on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) taking back and remanufacturing old products. This option however is often not financially viable for many companies with global supply chains due to a lack of mandates, upfront costs, logistical hurdles that include transportation and technical recovery challenges, and the inertia of ‘business as usual’. Moreover, manufacturers often do not want to offer lower cost products as they would erode profit margins from new product sales (Matsumoto, 2009; Guide & Jiayi, 2010; Veleva et. al., 2013). This presents an opportunity for entrepreneurial companies with innovative business models to fill the market gap and provide critical links for corporations in reverse supply chains while creating new business opportunities with social benefits. The role of entrepreneurs however is still underexplored (Heshmati, 2015). At the same time, entrepreneurs are critically important for solving complex problems that involve high uncertainty and risks because they are able “to produce value out of uncertainty” (York & Venkataraman, 2010). Transitioning to a circular economy will require “massive innovation and mind-set changes that cannot be anticipated” thus presenting a “tremendous entrepreneurial opportunity”. The opportunity will bring both social and economic benefits and new ways of living that established market players are unable to provide due to strong “inertial forces”, according to research by York & Venkataram (2010). Entrepreneurs are also better positioned to deliver social value, an area still missing in the current CE frameworks and research (Murray et. al., 2017). They are however constrained by their limited scalability and resources, thus establishing strategic partnerships with incumbent market players is advantageous for delivering their value proposition, creating new markets and transforming industries (Hockerts et. al., 2010).