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Circular disruption: Digitalisation as a driver of circular economy business models
Author(s) -
Neligan Adriana,
Baumgartner Rupert J.,
Geissdoerfer Martin,
Schöggl JosefPeter
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.3100
Subject(s) - circular economy , business model , resource efficiency , business , industrial organization , resource (disambiguation) , digital economy , german , product lifecycle , empirical research , marketing , new product development , computer science , history , computer network , ecology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , world wide web , biology
Abstract New circular business models can evolve at all stages of the life cycle of a product. Digitalisation can drive disruptive innovations, new business models and novel ways of collaboration and thus can accelerate the economic transition to more resource‐efficient and circular production systems. Yet, there is little empirical research on the enabling role of digitalisation for a circular economy. To address this gap, this paper investigates the role of digitalisation in facilitating circular business models, based on the empirical analysis of a data set of 599 German manufacturing firms and 296 industrial service providers. While relatively few German firms rely on new business models to foster their resource efficiency strategy, we find this share higher for companies with a strong digital focus in the manufacturing sector. This suggests that digitalisation can indeed be a driving force for the implementation of circular business models.