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Responsible Entrepreneurship & Circular Economy: how
entrepreneurs in Italy, Netherlands and England think
about starting a company with the CE
Alberto Staffini
University of Groningen student number: S3453448 Newcastle University student number: 170807522
DD MSc Advanced International Business Management & Marketing
Supervisors
University of Groningen: Dr. Bartjan J. W. Pennink Newcastle University: Dr. Elizabeth Alexander
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Abstract
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Acknowledgements
This thesis represents the arrival of my university path and the beginning of a new life.
I would like to thank Prof. Pennink and Prof. Alexander, supervisors of this thesis, for the availability and accuracy shown during the whole writing period. Furthermore, to all the entrepreneurs that have been interviewed, without them this work would not have come to life! A big thank you to my family, particularly my mother, with its sweet and unflagging support, both moral and economic, have allowed me to get here, contributing to my personal training.
All my friends, especially Alberto CZ, have had a decisive weight in achieving this result, the point of arrival and at the same time the departure of my life.
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1. Introduction 5
1.1 Research objective and conceptual model 7
2. Literature Review 8
2.1 The concept of Circular Economy and the earth problems 8
2.2 The pursue of the CE 11
2.2.1 Sharing and Extended use 11
2.2.2 Standardization and Modularization 13
2.2.3 Recycling and Upcycling 14
2.3 Economic context 15
2.4 The institutional arrangements 19
3. Methodology & data collection 22
3.1 Methodology 22
3.2 Data Collection 23
3.2.1 Primary data: unstructured and semi-structured interviews 23
3.2.2 Secondary data: previous studies and researches 27
4. Findings and analysis 29
4.1 The countries and the differences among them 29
4.1.1 Italy 29
4.1.2 The Netherlands 30
4.1.3 United Kingdom 31
4.2 The concept of Circular Economy and the earth problems 32
4.3 The pursue of the CE 34
4.3.1 Sharing and Extended use 34
4.3.2 Standardization and Modularization 37
4.3.3 Recycling and Upcycling 40
4.4 Economic context 43
4.5 The institutional arrangements 47
4.6 Summary table 49
5. Discussion and conclusion 51
6. Recommendation and limitation 57
7. References 59
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1. Introduction
The difficult and often conflicting relationship between man and environment represents the different way of functioning of the human system, in particular the economic one, in relation with the global ecosystem.
According to WWF (2016, p. 2), in 2012 “the bio-capacity equivalent of 1,6 earths was needed to provide the natural resources and services humanity” and then the current situation is killing the natural capital. Thus, the globe needs a recreating circular economy (EMF and McKinsey 2012).
In the last period there have been several debates regarding this problem and the Brundland Report defined an important concept which is related to it: the sustainable development (Brundland, 1987). It was defined as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WECD, p. 41, 1987), which is surely what we need today if we want to reach a general sustainability.
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toxic chemicals, which impairs reuse and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems, and within this, business models” (EMF and McKinsey, 2012). Here, we can clearly understand the big potential this circular method can have on the environment, but also on the company efficiency and effectiveness.
The CE effect is currently attracting a huge interest from different point of views. The enterprises are the central role of this debate, because the companies have the biggest impact on the market and then on the Earth (Hoffman and Ehrenfeld, 2015). Moreover, due to market-based economy, the businesses are directly related to the ecological and environmental crisis that is happening (Schaltegger and Wagner 2011; Schaltegger et al. 2016; Porter and Kramer 2011) and according to Hahn and Figge (2011) and Wells (2016) the goal is to move to a more sustainable economy. Finally, thanks to their potential, the companies have the power to change and move to a sustainable economy (Winn and Pogutz 2013; Shrivastava et al. 2013). All these researches can be directly linked to the CE way of thinking, where the goal is to reintegrate the current economy due to all the limits related to the ecology (EMF et al., 2015)
From the point of view of small and medium enterprises, the sustainability implies several issues, such as costs and general difficulties, that block or slow down the investments (Zamfir, Mocanu & Grigorescu, 2017). However, several researches indicate that the goal of becoming sustainable can overcome the costs and issues, with fewer resources utilized and the opportunity to have great future results (Crals & Vereeck, 2004). Thus, the sustainable entrepreneur can enhance the globe on pursuing specific goals that will help the future generations on being more aware the utilization of the available scarce resources.
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them and constantly reminding ourselves that all of these new technologies are first and foremost tools made by people for people” (Schwab, p. 105, 2016). Furthermore, this is a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs because the entrepreneurship is one of the main drivers to reach the sustainability: they can create new opportunities, using new type of shapes and technologies that will lead to a different economy and to a creation of new jobs and perspectives.
On the contrary, just little has been discovered on the entrepreneur’s view point of the Circular Economy approach (Franco, 2017).
Over the last years, the European Commission has adopted an ambitious package of measures on the CE for the transition of businesses and consumers to more sustainable economic systems. The concept of CE is gaining increasing attention, suggesting innovative approaches to address the growing scarcity of resources and environmental pressures linked to the linear economic model; a shift towards a circular economy will have repercussions on different sectors of the economy at different scales. Thus, the economic development of the country will play an important role in the findings of what the entrepreneurs think about the CE approach, raising questions about how the actors can effectively assess the transition and monitor progress towards long-term goals.
1.1 Research objective and conceptual model
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discovered the thoughts that these entrepreneurs have on the possibility of opening a new company constructed with the CE concept (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Conceptual model
The main intention to select these countries was to demonstrate the differences that can be seen among these European places on how entrepreneurs think on the possibility to set up an enterprise and how the variables can affect the results.
After analyzing the different situations that the entrepreneurs can face in those different counties, it will be examined the different opinions and thoughts that those entrepreneurs have on the CE technique.
2. Literature Review
2.1 The concept of Circular Economy and the earth problems
The interests in the environmental issues started to grow around the end on the 60s and the beginning of the 70s of the last century. For the first time economists such as Friedman (1970) and Narver (1971) decided to publish articles regarding the intentions of the companies to behave only
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to have the biggest income and revenues, without caring about the social responsibility that they were having on world population related to the pollution and the risks concerned to it.
The 80/90s have been the most important years for the rising of awareness concerning environmental issues (Hoffman and Bansal, 2012). The Hart’s natural resource base view (1995) shows that the companies need to face these problems if they want to follow a sustainable and durable strategy in a world that has finite resources. Furthermore, Porter and Van der Linde (1995) explained how these issues can be transformed into a possibility of creating new business opportunities and a greater competitive advantage.
In the last 20 years, the attention on these concerns turned out to be even greater and the intention of creating something always more innovative and green became one of the most important aims of the companies (Hoffman and Bansal 2012).
The CE concept was cited for the first time in the 1990 by the 2 economists Turner and Pearce. More recently the term has been correlated to several topics, for example the
sustainable development (Prieto-Sandoval et al., 2018), and various definitions have been matured (Kirchherr et al., 2017).
According to Park et al. (2010) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) (2013), the CE utilizes the resources in a cyclical way:
1. Companies take the materials from the environment and convert them in the final products.
2. Then, the products are launched and used by the final customers, or other companies. 3. Once the product life-cycle ends, the waste materials and resources will be utilized once again, in the same or new value chain.
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concept related to 4 aspects:
1. Compared to the linear approach, the cyclic flow has two main advantages: it tries to block and limit the utilization of finite resources available in the environment and help the materials’ supply to be independent (Tibbs, 2006)
2. It can represent a milestone in the sustainable development topic (Velenturf et al., 2017) 3. There is a close relationship with the society and how it tries to innovate (Prieto-Sandoval et al., 2018)
4. It can be translated in a 3-level approaches:
a. Micro level: final consumers and other companies (Park et al. 2010) b. Meso level: economic agents (Geng et al., 2012)
c. Macro level: cities, regions and public governments (Yuan et al., 2006) Thus, the Circular Economy can be a strong starting point for the entrepreneurs who would be positive about starting a company with this approach, because if an enterprise was born with the linear approach, it requires several steps to reach the sustainability (Ormazabal et al., 2018). Ormazabal et al. (2017) developed a 6-stages model, namely Environmental Management Maturity model, which helps companies and entrepreneurs on finding the best solution on overcoming waste problems and want to reach the “environmental excellence”. These 6-stages represent the maturity that the company faces and the future steps that need to be done in order to move to the next stage. The six stages are (Ormazabal et al., 2017):
1. Legal Requirements
2. Responsibility, Assignment and Training 3. Systematization
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5. Eco-Innovative Products and Services 6. Leading Green Company
All these opportunities can have several advantages and can help entrepreneurs on establishing their companies in new markets (Moore and Manring, 2009; Porter and van der Linde, 1995). Moreover, the possibility to create new and sustainable goods may encourage the development of innovative economic cycles (Prieto-Sandoval et al., 2016). However, even though the consumers are always more aware about what they buy, the purchase is not a direct and logic consequence of the consciousness (Bougherara and Combris, 2009; Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002).
Proposition 1: as a consequence of the increasing awareness on the environmental issues, the
entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening an enterprise with the CE approach
2.2 The pursue of the CE
2.2.1 Sharing and Extended use
The well-known “sharing economy” is one of the best solution for people who do not use the goods regularly (Grove, 1999). Price Waterhouse Coopers (2016) argued that the possible turnover of the sharing economy in Europe may worth €570 billion by 2025, which is a volume twenty times higher than the current one.
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Due to this fact the consumers do not buy the goods and always more companies are establishing their business based on the renting and the leasing.
Company like Airbnb, which provides short term accommodation that can just be booked online, propose solutions that are usually offered by someone who has a free room in his/her house. Uber gives the possibility to anyone who owns a car which it is not used at its full potential to deliver a sharing taxi service for tourists, visitors or every person that do not drive or cannot afford to buy a vehicle.
On the other hand, these services can be seen as exceptions, due to the fact that most of the on-line services launched in the recent years failed for the scarcity of users. One of the main problem for an entrepreneur that wants to follow this approach is the need to reach a critical number of possible users (Larsson, 2018). However, these kinds of businesses have to be provided in locations where the amount of people reached is high and then the convenience of the utilization for the customers starts to increase. “Creative business models may be developed in order to make services available to large numbers of customers” (Larsson, 2018).
Further possibilities can be represented by the opportunity to offer the product based on the needs of the customers and then offering the good for few minutes, hours or days (Grove, 1999). This chance represents the idea of the CE about using “a product as a service”, giving a greater motivation to the company that produce the good on the creation of something that can be used for a longer time and therefore being more efficient. The creation of something that the use will be extended is fundamental for the reduction of the resource waste and consumption.
Proposition 2: the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening a new
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2.2.2 Standardization and Modularization
One of the biggest problem of the goods that are currently sold is the “use and throw away design”, where the people prefer to change the product instead of trying to repair it. The cause of this issue is mainly given by the difficulty or the high cost to repair the products and then purchase a brand new good is the best solution (Lovins, 2013).
“Faster product development is a major goal for companies in competitive markets. Product platform architectures support planning for addressing diverse markets and fulfilling future market desires. Applying standardization or modularization on product platform components leverages current product design effort across future products” (Sered and Reich, p. 405, 2006).
In order to solve the misspend of materials, the standardization and modularization are fundamental if the goal is the limitation of the resources waste. Actually, these solutions can drastically reduce the overall cost of the companies and at the same time they will become more profitable in terms of revenues. Nevertheless, this cost reduction can be applied in several different businesses indifferently by the sizes of the companies, thus not only for car manufacturers or technology enterprises (Nilsson & Dernorth, 1995).
The goal is not to sell products that have an appealing design but at the same time they are difficult to repair or maintain. Instead, companies should be more focused on the manufacture of something that is easy to upgrade and fix, but they need big investments (Larsson, 2018).
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The companies should pursue specific and well-crafted strategies in order to create standardization processes and modularization products, but these will not have any chance to succeed if renewable materials and recycling flow are not used. Entrepreneurs should be influenced and motivated to pursue modularization processes, even though the time and the money to invest on these procedures are high (Lovins, 2013).
Proposition 3: the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening a new
enterprise that uses standardization and modularization processes
2.2.3 Recycling and Upcycling
McDonough and Braungart (2013) in their book “The upcycle” developed the idea that a normal recycling process may not be the best solution for used materials, rather it is better to remanufacture them in order to craft new goods with a better value. Thus, the main aim is to “upcycle” the biggest amount of refuse, indistinctly of the material.
For a large enterprise, in collaboration with other companies’ material, seem easier to create a circular and recycling flows that will help the enterprise itself to act as a supplier of the material needed to operate (Larsson, 2018).
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However, it must be said that if the recycling processes needs the mandatory consumption of other resources such as electricity for the process or the fuel for the transportation of the materials. Furthermore, the experts demonstrated that the recycled products have a lower overall quality (McDonough & Braungart, 2002).
Other products can be used for different use: second hand tires are used in the mixture for the preparation of particular floors or shoes soles, while the wood is mainly used as material to be incinerated. Thus, the recycling and upcycling processes can be used just for specific components (Larsson, 2018) .
Proposition 4: the entrepreneurs may be skeptic on the possibility of opening a new enterprise that
is based on recycling and upcycling due to the peculiarities of these models
2.3 Economic context
The economic development, with all the effects on the innovation, welfare and employment, is one of the most important indicator for the entrepreneurship in a country (Acs and Audretsch, 1988; Baumol, 2002; Wennekers and Thurik, 1999).
According to Porter (1990) and Porter et al. (2002) the economic development of a country is divided in three different situations:
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In the first step the country faces the problems of producing low quality products due to the small amount of capital invested. In this first situation all the countries do not create any kind of innovation knowledge or exporting knowledge.
Once the first step is finished, the country passes to the second phase: the efficiency-driven one. The economy increases the efficiency, in terms of production, while at the same time the workers are “educated” for being ready to the new development and technological situation. Obviously, the countries that faces more production efficiency will allow the businesses of paying more attention in the manufacture segment and they will be helped by large markets in the possibility of having economies of scale. This stage is delineated by having companies that produce basic services (Syrquin, 1988), but with a lower rate of self-employment. If the economy is more developed, the entrepreneurial activities will face a general decrease (Schultz, 1988). This is mainly due to the fact that if an economy becomes richer, the companies become bigger and more prepared managers are needed to run the corporation.
However, the last step will see an increasing number of ambitious activities. Studies in the 70/80s demonstrated that a developed economy leads towards a progressive increase of entrepreneurial actions where people try to move away from big companies to become their own businesses (Acs et al., 1994).
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The second is a historic reason. After the end of the second world war a lot of ambitious activities were made (Jorgenson, 2001). More technologies for any kind of business, that can vary from web services, mobile phone services or telecommunications, help people on having less time consumption and less expensive procedures for information exchange.
The third reason is related to the elasticity of substitution. According to Aquilina et al. (2006) the high rate of the elasticity of substitution helps the individuals on having more capital to invest and at the same time it is easier to become an entrepreneur. Moreover, the high rate of the elasticity of substitution for a country should represents also the level of the overall development, with smaller firms but more people who want to start a business alone.
The 2018 global entrepreneurship monitor (GERA, 2018), a study that comprehend individuals from 54 world economies divided in the three groups named above (factor-driven, efficiency-driven, innovation-driven), discovered that 43% of the world population are willing to start a new business in the near future. This research based its findings on the entrepreneurial activity of the countries on three different indicators:
1. Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA), which represents the total % of adults who have started a company up to 3.5 years
2. Entrepreneurial employee activity (EEA), which represents the % of employees developing new products and services for their employer
3. Established businesses rates, which represents the % of businesses over 3.5 years
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are still in the previous stage, and then in the efficiency-driven. Additionally, the innovation helps the competitive advantage in external economies (Walkelin, 1998; Roper and Love, 2002; Sterlacchini, 1999) and the developed countries are well integrated worldwide. Thus, the emerging economies need to develop the right environment to allow the entrepreneurship to grow in the innovation-driven condition, like Ireland, Israel and Korea in the last decade (Acs and Szerb, 2007).
The
Another indicator for the economy context has been developed in the 1990 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP introduced for the first time the Human Development Index (HDI), an indicator that shows the country economic development based on three different areas: education, per capita income and general health. Thus, this index tries to give an outcome that is comprehensive of several different economic and social aspects. The HDI can range from the minimum of 0 (no development) to a maximum of 1 (complete development) and the results is based on three elements that are equally weighted in the computation:
1. The knowledge: this indicator is a result of the total amount of children that are registered at school and those with more than 15 years old which are able to write and read every day’s life statements.
2. The standard of living: this indicator is a result of the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, but at the same purchasing power parity.
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Thus, the HDI can clearly help to understand the different levels of development among countries. Only the GDP per capita cannot be considered as a complete indicator, because it does not take into consideration important information related to the longevity and the country knowledge.
Proposition 5: the more the country’s economy is stable and developed, the more the entrepreneurs
have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach
2.4 The institutional arrangements
“The institutions are the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction” (North, 1990, p. 3). Thus, the main institutions’ role is to reduce the possible uncertainties among the people and satisfying the needs reducing the transaction costs. However, according to Vatn (2005), the choices and preferences of the individuals are influenced by the society and Hodgson (1998, p. 177) argued that “individuals interact to form institutions, while individual purposes or preferences also are molded by socio-economic conditions. The individual is both a producer and a product of his/her circumstances”. Therefore, the evaluation of the different situations that the entrepreneurs face with their companies is of a primary importance.
According to Busenitz et al. (2000), the level of the entrepreneurship that can be seen at the country level based on three different dimensions:
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2. Cognitive: the overall knowledge and capabilities that the people of the country have in order to develop a positive business idea
3. Normative: the admiration that citizens have towards those who do business
Furthermore, the formal and informal institutions can modify the rules by which the organizations work at a macro level (Hitt et al., 2000). However, the relative social and economic stability in developed countries does not radically change the decisions that can be made by the management (North, 1990). On the other hand, the possible social and economic instability, in emerging markets, can create uncertainty and ambiguity (Pedersen & Thomsen, 1997).
Meyer and Rowan (1977) started to pay attention on the institution and jointly with Di Maggio and Powell (1983) and Oliver (1991) defined the neo-institutional theory. In their work, Di Maggio and Powell (1983) declared that the institutional context influences the organisational actions with mimetic, coercive and normative forces.
The CE approach started to become always more important with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and jointly with important institutions, such as the World Economic Forum, SYSTEMIQ, SUN (2017) and McKinsey & Company, defined how it is important to discuss together with policymakers, universities and entrepreneurs in order to facilitate the step towards the CE. Obviously, the step has several implications and difficulties, but with the right norms and regulations developed by the institutions can help on finding the best solutions for the environment. According to the development of the institutions that surround the CE, there are two concept of the institutional theory that can be detected:
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arrangement and who leverage resources to create new institutions or to transform existing ones” (Maguire et al., 2004, p. 657)
2. The emerging influence that the CE is having at the society level can be a potential to be used for institutional and organisational isomorphism (Gilmore and Sillince 2014)
Usually, the institutional arrangements are seen as formal and informal unions for the creation of collective actions that can vary from private or public collaborations to policy arrangements and organizational networking (Klijn & Teisman, 2000; Geels, 2004). These formal and informal, or also hybrid, activities diverge from being at local, regional, country or global level and can create divergence among themselves, due to the fact that several actors are involved in different activities. The institutional arrangements have different shapes based on the social and cultural norms, the government, the overall development, and usually are made to help the population in terms of identity, welfare and solidarity. The development is a key challenge to figure out the real correlation that can be seen among the institutional arrangements with the disparity and the poverty of the county (Knack and Keefer, 1995; Rodrik et al., 2002). It is wrong if we thought that the development requires only more and more institutional arrangements, instead there is the need of finding the ones that are missing to have a complete and comprehensive administration scheme (Lovan, 2004).
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Proposition 6: if the current country’s institutional arrangements represent a starting point to the
investments, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach
3. Methodology & data collection
3.1 Methodology
In order to offer to the future readers to have the possibility to judge and evaluate the validity of this research, this part will try to explain the different steps that have been taken to conduct this study and the tools used in the methodology.
The current research question is to investigate about how the entrepreneurs think about starting a new company with the CE approach in Italy, the Netherlands and United Kingdom. Analyzing the institutional arrangements and the economic development of all three European countries, the Italian entrepreneurs have been directly interviewed and the outcomes represent the primary data in this study, while for the other two countries previous studies and researches have been used as secondary data.
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The aim of this thesis is to contribute with new knowledge in the academic world, within the topic of the CE approach. This is done by uncovering the different thoughts that entrepreneurs from different countries have on the Circular Economy concept on the possibility of opening new companies with this sustainable system.
The research question “how do entrepreneurs in Italy, Netherlands and England think about starting a company with the CE?” wants to express the aim of the current study and according to Blaikie (2010) the word “How” can be directly referred to the willingness of discovering new outcomes and involvements related to the changes that can happen, with practical conclusions.
3.2 Data Collection
The current section will discuss the different data collection in two separate segments: 1. Primary data, with the utilization of unstructured and semi-structured interviews 2. Secondary data, with the utilization of previous studies and researches
3.2.1 Primary data: unstructured and semi-structured interviews
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These people have been directly contacted by me because I knew them before starting this research. All these people were excited and intrigued regarding the possibility of talking about the CE. However, in all the nine cases nobody was aware of this specific term and this helped me to figure out how the information of certain important topics cannot reach all the people who really need to be directly informed.
The nine entrepreneurs, all from the norther part of Italy, are:
1. Filippo C., business to business cured meat and cheese dealer. His business operates mostly in Italy, but he works with other European countries such as Portugal and United Kingdom (10 employees)
2. Jacopo G., optician and owner of two specialized optical shops (2 employees)
3. Simone B., owner of an advertising decorations company. He operates mostly in Italy, but sometimes he had to work with other countries like Japan or U.S.A. (5 employees)
4. Stefano Pan., coachbuilder for cars (3 employees) 5. Fabio E., owner of two bars / pubs (10 employees)
6. Stefano Pag., his business is related to the chemical industry and it operates worldwide (<50 employees)
7. Gioele S., greengrocer (2 employees) 8. Riccardo B., greengrocer (2 employees)
9. Davide S., electrician who works with solar panels and renewable energy (8 employees) However, in order to maintain the confidentiality, the surname has not been shown totally, as an expression of any single entrepreneur.
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1. Unstructured interviews, in order to have initial feedbacks and more information about the entrepreneurs and the companies
2. Semi-structured interviews, once all the data are understood clearly
According to Blaikie (2010), these types of methodology are mainly seen as a qualitative approach of gaining information.
The unstructured interviews are certainly important to start exploring the entrepreneurs’ environment and what their businesses are about. The logic for beginning with unstructured interviews is to initially understand more clearly the situation and then the entrepreneurs should understand clearly the topic of the questions and the Circular Economy topic. The semi-structured interviews are the foundations of this research, where all the related and relevant questions were followed by the subsequent answers closely related to the numbered propositions.
The utilization of this type of dialogue can give the opportunity to the person interviewed to precise and express the topic in their own styles (Bernard, 2006). Semi-structured interviews were used once the most important information were clearly assumed and, according to Bernard (2006), this kind of interview “works very well in projects where you are dealing with high-level bureaucrats and elite members of a community – people who are accustomed to efficient use of their time”. Before starting with the interviews, I explained what my thesis is about and I described all the facets of it and the different concepts related to the CE topic.
The unstructured interviews covered these topics: 1. General information of the entrepreneur 2. General information of the company 3. Corporate culture
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5. Information about the trade and the country where the company operates
6. If the company operates also abroad, what are the differences respect the Italian environment, people, issues and so on
7. General idea regarding the “sustainable entrepreneurship”
However, the structured interviews were really specific in order to define and outline all the information needed. The interviews were based on a series of open question and before starting I checked carefully if there were issues that needed further clarification. The average duration of the single interview was 40/45 minutes each. Thus, the questions of the semi-structured interviews were:
1. What is the opinion about the environmental problems and the earth in general?
2. Do you think that the all the possibilities offered by Italy and the development of the country itself can help someone who would like to open a company with the CE approach? 3. Do you think that the measures used by the institutions can influence and push someone to
open a company with the CE approach?
4. If you thought about a country where to do business with the CE, which country would you choose?
5. If you could, would you open a new business with the CE approach in Italy?
6. If yes, why? What are your thoughts about opening a company in Italy with this method? 7. If no, what are the issues that influenced you to say “NO”?
8. In any case, what should be done to help more the entrepreneurs on approaching to this “style” of doing business and overall about the “sustainable entrepreneurship”?
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The key of coding the data gained, thus conducting the qualitative analysis, was to develop a storyline with the integration of the most important themes of the valuation (Gibbs, 2007). The codification was mainly done with the involvement of assigned phrases and words (Lofland & Lofland, 1995) to any of the question asked. Obviously, all the interviews were transcript to code all the concepts and ideas to the single question category. I used two different codes in the analysis: 1. Pre-set codes, which were used in advance to have a base on the codification of the data
(Miles & Huberman, 1994)
2. Emergent codes, different codes compared to the pre-set ones that come up in the analysis and were used once finished all the interviews (Gibbs, 2007)
However, after having analyzed all the data gained, the code schemes were refined and, in order to have better organized data, were broken down into sub-codes (Talylor & Bogdan,1998) and will be shown in the chapter of the findings.
3.2.2 Secondary data: previous studies and researches
The secondary data that have been used to discover how Dutch and British entrepreneurs think on the possibility to open a new business were based on previous researches and studies of different figures that come from those countries.
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The data were gained mainly from studies and articles related to the entrepreneurship that the two countries are currently facing. Furthermore, several indicators and empirical results have been used in order to show what can be the general thoughts of Dutch and British entrepreneurs.
The previous studies include several different types of information that can vary from the entrepreneurs themselves to the government or people that are involved in the Circular Economy and, more in general, the sustainable development field.
Thanks to the possibility of examining these secondary data it was possible to determine the factors that influenced the outcomes of this research in the Netherlands and UK. Additionally, confronting the secondary data with the primary it has been possible to see all the different facets and point of views in three different countries.
According to Jacobsen and Landau (2003), as long as the utilization of secondary data are related to the utilization of information previously found by other scholars and authors, the findings have to be taken into consideration. Moreover, the arguments made by others are always linked to the author’s view (Alexander, 1987). However, the secondary data, usually, are collected with the scope of finding information that are different from the purpose of the own research and they may not answer the specific questions made by the researcher (Foley, 2018).
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4. Findings and analysis
4.1 The countries and the differences among them
4.1.1 Italy
Italy’s GDP grew by 1,5% in 2017 and 0,9% in 2016 (Focus Economies, 2018). The almost three quarter of the total is represented by the service sector and it employs more than the 60% of the total workers. The industry covers one quarter of the total. The high-quality manufacture products are produced by small and medium-size companies (Focus Economies, 2018).
The main issue of this country is the significant difference that can be seen from north and south: the developed and industrialized north produces 75% of the total wealth, while the south is more agriculture bases (Focus Economies, 2018). The consequence is a disparity of incomes and level of unemployment. Another problem is given by the political instability of the last two decades, creating uncertainties and a slow GDP growth. Furthermore, the unemployment rate is one of the highest among the developed economies, with a negative record of 12,5% in 2013, and the second worst debtor in the European Union (Focus Economies, 2018).
There are also problems related to the institution: Italy is placed at the 79th place of the countries for the “economic freedom” (Hentsch, 2018). Due to this reason, the country cannot be compared to other European economies regarding the possibilities of having investments made by entrepreneurs or even start-uppers.
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CE practices, the recruitment of new technical professional figures and the updating of internal resources (Illomei, 2018). It is therefore confirmed that the CE offers companies large areas of innovation and competition through a more efficient management of resources and the adoption of new technologies attributable to industry 4.0. Additionally, it is placed 26th in the “Highest Human Indicators” ranking (United Nations Development Programme, 2018).
4.1.2 The Netherlands
The Netherlands GDP in 2017 growth by 3,3% respect the previous year and for the following three years it is expected to grow respectively by 2,5% in 2018, 2,2% in 2019 and 1,9% in 2020 (DNB, 2018). Furthermore, the employment rate is expected to grow progressively over the years and then the unemployment is likely to decrease up to 3,5% of the working population by 2020 (DNB, 2018).
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Regarding the Circular Economy concept, according to NLCH (2016), the Netherlands are one of the main “circular hot spot” in the whole European Union. Furthermore, there are enterprises such as Circle Economy which tries to help other companies and entrepreneurs in the order to implement and facilitate the development of this new business way of thinking (NLCH, 2016). Finally, the Netherlands are placed at the 7th place in the ranking of the countries with the highest Human Development Indicators (United Nations Development Programme, 2018).
4.1.3 United Kingdom
The UK GDP growth is likely to stay moderate in the near future term. The evolution in the previous two years have seen and increment of 2,2% in 2016 and 1,7% in 2017 (TMF group, 2018). The main issues of the British economy are related to the uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations that have been developing over these months, even though the beginning of the exit from the European Union should start from 2019. Once left the EU, the focal risk will be related to the problems that may occur with other European countries in terms of trading relationships and thus the overall import-export (TMF group, 2018).
However, the UK became the European most entrepreneurial economy, according to the Imperial College (2014). These great result is mainly due to the abilities and progresses that have happened in the entrepreneurial economy. The government is currently helping start-uppers and entrepreneurs with procedures and incentives that vary from loans, mentoring and guidance in order to get a return on investments (DEFRA, 2013).
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the business and it is trying to let the people be more aware about their habits and behaviors. Moreover, the main goal of the government is to find and emanate the rights policies in order to help the companies to work in a better and easier way with this new methodology, increasing the innovation and circular actions (Larsson, 2016). All these solutions are decided for the whole country, but at the same time some of them are decided regionally due to the decentralization of the environmental policy (DEFRA, 2013). Furthermore, UK is the 16th country in the ranking with the Highest Development Indicators (United Nations Development Programme, 2018).
4.2 The concept of Circular Economy and the earth problems
“In a circular economy, economy activity builds and rebuilds overall system health. The concept recognises the importance of the economy needing to work effectively at all scales […]. It represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits” (Ellen MacArthur foundation, 2017). Thus, the CE represents an actual and real solution for larger and smaller businesses, both globally and locally.
Italy
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following the circular processes. “I would like to have a business where I do not dispose all the trash that I produce, because it is just a waste of materials that can be used for longer time and for different, more well-suited, solutions” (Simone, decoration company) and more “my company cannot be described as a “green one” and I totally understand the issues related to the pollution and the wasting of the resources. I am trying already to change some processes in the company, but it is not easy. However, if I had the possibility of opening a new business, I would absolutely try to be as much “circular” as possible”. Fabio (bars owner) and Davide (electrician) claimed that “a big change is necessary if we want to become sustainable” and “if we continue like this the environment that surrounds us will rapidly change in worse. I totally agree with the possibility of becoming more “circular”. We need it!”.
In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “positive”, “I would absolutely try to be as much “circular” as possible”, “a big change is necessary if we want to become sustainable” and “I totally agree with the possibility of becoming more “circular” helped me to declare that the Italian entrepreneurs are positive on the possibility of opening an enterprise with the CE approach.
The Netherlands and UK
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According to NLCH (2016) the Netherlands are one of the main “circular hot spot” in the whole European Union and there are consulting companies that are helping current and future entrepreneurs on becoming circular.
UK represents the country with the highest level of entrepreneurship among all the European nations and these result is related to the great progress that occurred in the entrepreneurial economy (Imperial College, 2014). Furthermore, the British Government figured out that the CE represent a huge potential for the current environmental issues (Environmental Audit Committee, 2014) even though “a recent survey found 50% of small-medium enterprises hadn’t hear of the circular economy”, but “there are still plenty of reasons to be positive” (Russel, 2014) and “start-ups are taking the lead in green business and the circular economy” (Gallacher, 2018). Thus, the entrepreneurs are always more aware on the pollution and they are giving their priority to businesses that follow recycling, recovering and reusing methodology (DEFRA 2013).
Thus, the first proposition “as a consequence of the increasing awareness on the environmental
issues, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening an enterprise with the CE approach” is accepted
4.3 The pursue of the CE
4.3.1 Sharing and Extended use
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technology for a CE model. Thus, professionals, consumers and ordinary citizens are promoting these new solutions in order to save and redistribute money, encouraging the socialization and at the same time the safeguard of the environment. Some examples of this new business model can be represented by Bla Bla Car or Airbnb where million users can take advantage of other members who offer car rides and apartments or room rents for a short period. According to a recent study of Price Waterhouse Coopers (2016), the turnover of the sharing economy in Europe could worth, in terms of transit volumes, €570 billion by 2025 and represents a value twenty times higher than the current one.
Italy
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spending every time money and money for tools that are used just few times. Substantially, we waste money on something that does not deserve the amount of money spent. I would like to spend this money on something that helps me to grow my company, not the companies of others!”. Moreover, Jacopo (optician) and Fabio (bar/pub owner) think that “This is the future. Lucky the people that can invest in something that will give a huge return in the future”. Filippo (food dealer), Gioele and Riccardo (greengrocers) claimed that the sharing economy represents something that will be used always more from people of any age: “I think that nowadays also the old generations are considering the potential of this model”, “I would love to implement my business, or open a new one, with the possibility of using shared commodities” and finally “in my opinion, in 20-30 years or less, none will own the most common goods that we use every single day. This is great!”. Thus, all the other entrepreneurs have similar thoughts on the possibilities of opening a new company with this business models.
In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “I would love to open a company that does this kind of business”, “This is the future” and “I would love to implement my business, or open a new one, with the possibility of using shared commodities” helped me to declare that the Italian entrepreneurs are positive on the possibility of opening an enterprise that provides sharing services and/or extended use products.
The Netherlands and UK
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existing behavior. […]. Set up new services that promote the sharing of consumer products and encourage repair and maintenance services that extend their technical lifespan” (Bastein et al. p. 10, 2013). Consequently, there are always more entrepreneurs that are following this circular model.
In UK, by 2025 the total transaction of the sharing economy could more than decuple and passing from £13 billion of 2016 to £140 billion (PWC, 2016). Besides, the UK is the European country with the highest number of operations that are related to these businesses (Booty, 2017). The British government and “Innovate UK” launched a competition with the final prizes of £180.000 to split for six small business or stat-ups that want to purse the sharing and extended use model (Egerton-Read, 2016) and thus I assume that the entrepreneurs are positively influenced on pursuing the finality of the Circular Economy.
Thus, the second proposition “the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of
opening a new enterprise that provides sharing services and/or extended use products” is
accepted.
4.3.2 Standardization and Modularization
Man takes huge quantities from the environment of resources and returns waste and pollution. In obedience to that utilitarian approach which has its totem in their "internal product".
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The drivers of product design and use are discussed in the context of emerging consumption trends and business models. For governance to be effective, it must address the product life cycle and the social context that determines it.
An efficient circular economy requires not only that the assets are more durable, as they are repairable and reusable, but also the development of support services and recycling infrastructures.
Italy
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directly affected, because he thinks that “if I had the possibility of investing is a company that produces standardized and modularized products, I would do it immediately. Try to think that you can recuse any single part of the good that you make. This is a great idea”.
In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “I am trying to create a company with these principles”, “I am positive” and “if I had the possibility […], I would do it immediately” helped me to declare that the Italian entrepreneurs are positive on the possibility of opening a new companies that use standardization and modularization processes.
The Netherlands and UK
According to the study on the CE in the Netherlands of Bastein et al. (2013) “The circular economy most likely will have to go hand in hand with far-reaching standardization to facilitate the reuse of product parts. Knowledge development for the design process will therefore have to focus on the art of combining constantly evolving standardization with designs that still allow manufacturers to distinguish themselves from their competitors”. Furthermore, in the Netherlands there are institutes like NEN (Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut) that are helping companies of becoming “standardized” and attentive to the environment, creating new business possibilities.
The British Standards Institution (BSI) was launched at the beginning of the 20th century and jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills they demonstrate the country’s interest on the possibility of creating standardized and modularized processes. Furthermore, based on a BSI research (2015) the results that the standardization gave to the UK economy in the period 1921-2013 are:
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3. More than 28% of annual UK GDP growth is given by the standards 4. £6.1 billion of annual UK exports are related to the standards
Therefore, the power of the standards and modularized model are a pivot of the UK economy and to the possibility of new entrepreneurs on pursuing these procedures.
Thus, the third proposition “the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening
a new enterprise that uses standardization and modularization processes” is accepted.
4.3.3 Recycling and Upcycling
The consumer society, which for decades has been the heart of our economic system, is based on the "take-make-dispose" model. It involves the continuous withdrawal of resources from nature, their transformation into usable goods and finally the abandonment in landfill or incineration. This linear model presupposes the infinite availability of resources by the environment and the unlimited capacity of the latter to receive waste. Inspired by the mechanisms of nature, which thanks to the energy of the sun continuously recycles every type of substance, the CE is based on the recovery of most of the waste, after separate collection, and on their reuse as secondary materials.
However, according to McDonough and Braungart (2013), the solution is in the upcycling, where the good disposed is remanufactured and created with a new and better value. Consequently, it looks really hard to reach.
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recycled infinite times, like aluminum, steel and copper, while others may face difficulties after being recuperated.
Italy
According to Stefano Pag. (chemical industry), Fabio (bars owner), Simone (decoration company) and Filippo (food dealer), one of the main problem that they face in their businesses and in their personal life are the very few incentives that the county offers to the companies and to the normal people even though the waste taxes are terribly high. Moreover, Stefano Pan. (coachbuilder) added “I always thought that here in Italy we cannot have the same result of other countries with the recycling processes. I heard some of my friends that have been in other countries like Germany or the Netherlands where the supermarket gives you back money if you take back plastic bottles or cans. Here, in Italy, something like this is unfortunately impossible to see. It will definitely help the companies, people and the all the country of behaving more responsibly”.
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In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “the upcycling is something almost impossible to do”, “in Italy we cannot have the same result of other countries with the recycling processes “, “not the upcycling” and “it looks utopian” helped me to declare that the Italian entrepreneurs have negative thoughts on the possibility of opening a new enterprise which is based on recycling and upcycling.
The Netherlands and UK
In the Netherlands the results are excellent. According to Waste Management World (2010), “Thanks to its top-notch waste management structure, the Netherlands is able to recycle no less than 64% of its waste – and most of the remainder is incinerated to generate electricity. As a result, only a small percentage ends up in landfill. In the realm of recycling this is a country which is practically unique”. Moreover, the Netherland is one of the best countries in terms of recycling number in the whole Europe (McDaid, 2013). In the country there are more than 700 companies that are related to the recycling world: more than 150 regard the metal only, more than 60 regard the plastic only and 30 regard the possibility of creating sustainable energy (Linnenkoper, 2016). Furthermore, there are companies that are following the upcycle model like Superuse Studios, Buurman, and Scrapand the number is arising.
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introduced the landfill tax in order to encourage the recovery of the disposed material in the proper way (DEFRA 2013). Additionally, the upcycling is becoming always more attractive and more people are doing their business in this new avant-garde model (McDonough et al., 2013)
Thus, the outcomes of the fourth proposition “the entrepreneurs have negative thoughts on the
possibility of opening a new enterprise that is based on recycling and upcycling” are not
homogenous:
- For the Italian ones, the proposition can be accepted due to the different negative opinions of these topics and the current skepticism
- For Dutch and British ones, the proposition cannot be accepted because the businesspersons have positive thoughts on the possibility to invest in both recycling and upcycling models
4.4 Economic context
According to Acs and Audretsch (1988) and Baumol (2002) the economic context of the country represents one of the main indicators that reflects the level of entrepreneurship.
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Italy
OECD has revised downwards the forecast of economic growth of Italy this year, now indicated at 1.2%, while it has confirmed at most 1.1 percent the estimate on 2019 and the data on 2018 contained in the interim update of the Economic Outlook is 0.2 percentage points lower than last May (OECD, 2018). The overall GDP is represented by three quarter of the service sector and the people employed in this segment are more than the 60% of the total workers. Furthermore, the industry covers the 25% (Focus Economies, 2018). Finally, the GEM report (GERA, 2018) placed Italy at the 51st place out of 54 countries regarding the “entrepreneurial spirit index”.
However, the cardinal problem is represented by the big difference that can be seen from the north, industrialized and developed where it is produced the 75% of the total wealth, and the south, underdeveloped and agricultural based (Focus Economies, 2018). The consequence is a disparity of incomes and the level of unemployment (12,5% in 2013) is one of the highest among the developed economies and the second worst debtor, after Greece, in the European Union. Moreover, Italy is positioned 26th in the “Highest Human Indicators” ranking (United Nations Development Programme, 2018).
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invest”. Finally, Davide (electrician), Filippo (food dealer) and Simone (decoration company) are scared regarding the future, also for their current companies, and they are hoping not to have problems in the near future.
In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “general instability”, “few prospective for the future” and “the requirement for the same economy in the whole country” helped me to declare that for the Italian the proposition “the more the country’s economy is stable
and developed, the more the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach” is accepted, because the general instability and the
development of the country do not help the entrepreneurs on having positive opinions regarding new investments in circular businesses.
The Netherlands and UK
46
companies that try to help entrepreneurs of becoming circular (NLCH, 2016) represent positive and encouraging possibilities to open CE businesses in the Netherlands.
The UK indicators are not homogenous, and the overall economy growth should be moderate in the future biennium 2019-2020 (TMF group, 2018). The problems of these differences that are happening to the UK economy can be related to the Brexit negotiations that have been happening in these months (TMF group, 2018). The main uncertainties have positive and negative results: the structural decline of the pound, increasing of the imports and exports, rising of the inflation, real wages under pressure, unemployment is at its lowest and the slow growth of the economy (Sorrentino, 2018).
However, all these uncertainties do not stop the willingness of the UK government on helping new entrepreneurs with policies like mentoring, guidance and loans in order to follow important investments for the economy (DEFRA, 2013). Additionally, UK is the 16th best country, according to the United Nations Development Programme (2018), in the ranking with the Highest Development Indicators, and 39th in the GERA report (2018) regarding the entrepreneurial index. The “Environmental Audit Committee” (2014) argued that the British Government figured out the big potential of the CE and wants to spread the intention of following these practices in the whole country: the main purpose is to issue the rights policies in order to help the companies to work in a better and easier way with the CE, helping the innovation and the development actions (Larsson, 2016).
Thus, the fifth proposition “the more the country’s economy is stable and developed, the more the
entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach” is accepted. The development difficulties that can be seen in the Italian economy can
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4.5 The institutional arrangements
All entrepreneurs believe in the potential of their companies and are willing to invest in the territory for opening new ones, provided that this effort is recognized by all the actors operating in the system and leads to an improvement in competitiveness.
The institutions’ role is to reduce the possible uncertainties among the people and satisfying the needs reducing the transaction costs. However, the choices and preferences of the individuals are influenced by the society (Vatn, 2005) and “The individuals interact to form institutions, while individual purposes or preferences also are molded by socio-economic conditions. The individual is both a producer and a product of his/her circumstances” (Hodgson 1998, p. 177). Therefore, the differences and evaluation that can be faced by the entrepreneurs in different contexts are fundamental for the final evaluation.
Italy
The recent Italian institutional crisis and the problems related to the economic maneuver of the country have had effects on the financial markets of the whole world, causing losses of all the main stock market indices and increasing the rates of government bond yields of most of the southern Europe countries.
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new parties will change drastically all the arrangements? I wouldn’t do it”. Finally, Filippo (food dealer), Riccardo and Gioele (greengrocers), which all are trading in the food industry, are less drastic, but still quite uncertain regarding the institutions and the warranties that they give to the entrepreneurs. The three would prefer to invest in other place, like Denmark of the Scandinavian countries.
In order to code these statements, the utilization of terms or sentences like “uncertainties related to the continuous changes related to the government”, “How can you think about investing […] if you know that in the near future the government will change […] all the arrangements?” and the idea of investing in other countries helped me to declare that for the Italian entrepreneurs the proposition “if the current country’s institutional arrangements represent a starting point to the
investments, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach” is accepted.
The Netherlands and UK
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Even though the UK is one of the best country for someone who wants to invest in new enterprises, the problems related to the Brexit can be directed linked to the Italian problems, where the uncertainty represents the main block for entrepreneurs. A Brexit without agreement would send the British economy straight into recession (S&P, 2018). In particular, the rating agency accounts for a "moderate recession" of 4-5 quarters, with GDP declining by 2.7%. Subsequently "the economy would return to growth, but at a moderate pace", with an overall GDP loss of 5.5% compared to what would have happened in the event of an agreement. On the labor market front, unemployment would rise from historical lows of 4% to 7.4% by 2021, levels comparable to those after the 2007 financial crisis. Consequently, the institutional problems are not seen as positive by the investors and the entrepreneurs may be sceptic about investing in new companies with new avant-garde models, even more when the near future is so uncertain. So, the British entrepreneurs should wait the country stability before trying to invest in the CE.
Thus, the sixth preposition “if the current country’s institutional arrangements represent a starting
point to the investments, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach” is accepted, because the problems related to the instability and
the continuous changes and destabilizing times.
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1. As a consequence of the increasing awareness on the environmental issues, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening an enterprise with the CE approach
X X X
2. The entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening a new enterprise that provides sharing services and/or extended use products
X X X
3. The entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility of opening a new enterprise that uses standardization and modularization processes
X X X
4. The entrepreneurs have negative thoughts on the possibility of opening a new enterprise that is based on recycling and upcycling
X
5. The more the country’s economy is stable and developed, the more the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach
X X X
6. If the current country’s institutional arrangements represent a starting point to the investments, the entrepreneurs have positive thoughts on the possibility to set up a new business with the CE approach
X X X
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5. Discussion and conclusion
The goal of this research was to discover and analyze deeply all the thoughts that the entrepreneurs in different countries can have with the possibility to set up a new enterprise with the Circular Economy solution.
The concept of CE responds to the desire of sustainable growth, in a context where the increasing production and consumption are subjected to the continuous reduction of resources. So far, the economy has worked with a "production-consumption-disposal" linear model where every product is inexorably destined to come to "end life".
At the base of the difficult and often conflicting relationships between the man and the environment lies the different way of functioning of the human technological system, in particular the economic one, in relation with the global ecosystem (Emmott, 2013). However, the worldwide interests on these issues started to grow over the second part of the 20th century. The firsts publications of Friedman (1970) and Narver (1971) showed how the final interest of the companies were to make money, without taking into account the problems that they could create at the environment and at the population with the production processes used.
Over the 80s and 90s the awareness started to grow (Hoffman and Bansal, 2012) and in the 1995 Hart developed the natural resource base view which showed the importance to the entrepreneurs and businesses to face these problems, in order to have a sustainable future and the possibility of creating new opportunities (Porter and Van der Linde, 1995).
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The transition to a CE shifts the focus on reuse, adjust, renew and recycle existing materials and products. What normally considered as "waste" can be turned into a resource. The CE is best understood by observing natural living systems, which work optimally because each of their elements is fits well overall. The products are designed specifically to fit into the material cycles: as a result, these form a flow which it maintains added value for as long as possible. The remaining refusals they are close to zero.
The people started to understand that several goods needed do not have to be bought, but they can be used just when they need it. Therefore, several companies are building their businesses on models like the renting or the leasing and the “sharing economy” is one of the best solution for people who do not use the goods regularly (Grove, 1999). However, the main issue for an entrepreneur is the need to reach a critical number of possible users (Larsson, 2018) and consequently these kinds of services should be located in places where the number of the people reached is high.
The finding of these research showed the differences that can be seen from countries of the same continent: Dutch entrepreneurs are more willing to invest in this new business model compared to Italian and British ones. The main problems for the other two are related of the level of uncertainties that can be seen in their nations.
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raw materials and energy used both in large quantities and at low economic cost. The current model of development is strongly impacting and involves a series of environmental problems such as the amount of waste to be managed, carbon emissions and the loss of biodiversity. The main problem is the cost of the reparation, thus people prefer to buy a brand-new product (Lovins, 2013). The standardization and modularization are fundamental if the goal is to limit the waste of materials and resources, reducing the costs for the companies. If the product’s life-cycle came to an end, it should be dismount and then recycled every part of it (Womack et al., 1991).
The CE can therefore open up new markets, that respond to changes in consumption patterns: from the conventional property to use, reuse and sharing of products. Furthermore, it can contribute to create more and better jobs. Probably, once the CE will be definitely consolidated, the entrepreneurs from all over the world will be pleased and joyful on investing in something that should change the world in a better place.
At the helm of the transition to a CE we find the business world, thus the businesspersons. Short-life products have been, in the past, a key setting for many companies, which promoted updates frequent and cutting-edge technologies. Now the industrial world can seize the opportunity to prolong the lives of products and create long-lasting competitive products.
