Research on circular economy (CE) provides insight into the different components of circularity transitions, but often falls short of offering a more holistic view of strategy implementation and managerial guidance. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to understand how firms implement specific CE strategies in practice and second, to identify specific dynamic capabilities related to these strategies. Our research was conducted on the Swedish wood construction industry, which draws attention with its circular technologies and practices. Our data consisted of open- and closed-ended questions from 35 senior managers and CEOs in the construction value chain regarding the relevance of implementing different CE principles to their perception of high circularity. The data were analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to uncover strategies (i.e. combinations of CE principles) for high circularity. Our findings reveal and explain four strategies towards circularity: a) The value chain steward, b) The circular product developer, c) The waste watcher, and d) The holistic resource organizer. The findings also identify specific organizational capabilities that enable innovation activities critical for the CE transition. Such innovations go beyond the mere integration of circular technologies, highlighting the importance of using sufficiency-based principles to develop circular business models.
Business model innovation for sustainability (BMIfS) is a key driver for industry transformations in addressing grand challenges. While previous corporate sustainability literature has acknowledged that companies require different management approaches to innovate their business model for larger system changes, a more structured and nuanced understanding of such management has not often been applied. By developing a theory-based typology, this thesis explores how management and social theories can be used to advance BMIfS research. The typology accumulates and organizes existing knowledge of the important but fragmented BMIfS management research to capture the key dimensions and differentiate among various management approaches. From a management perspective, the thesis identifies three BMIfS management dimensions: values, knowledge, and agency. The thesis consists of four appended empirical papers that illustrate various facets of the BMIfS management typology. The empirical data from those papers is based on case studies of the Swedish wood construction industry, which has attracted international attention due to the development of innovative and sustainable building technologies and practices. This thesis makes three main contributions. First, it contributes to a growing discussion in the management researcher and practitioner communities on advancing the managerial perspectives of BMIfS. Second, it presents a theory-based typology of different BMIfS management approaches and their theoretical roots. Third, it illustrates various facets of these management approaches with empirical examples from the four appended papers.
The growing challenges of climate change and resource depletion have exposed the limitations of the traditional 'take-make-dispose' production and consumption model. In response, the concept of the circular economy (CE) has gained prominence as an alternative approach that emphasizes reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials. However, transitioning to a CE requires profound socio-technical changes, often disrupting linear business models and posing significant threats to established incumbent organizations. Incumbents, face difficulties in adapting to CE transitions due to misalignments between their existing competencies and the new demands of circularity. This paper examines the strategic challenges that incumbents encounter during these transitions, focusing on the tension between exploiting existing competencies and exploring new technological and business opportunities. Through a multiple-case study in the Swedish wood construction industry, the paper highlights the dual challenge of improving current practices while venturing into unknown territory. The empirical data is drawn from the Swedish wood construction industry, which has gained international attention for its development of innovative and sustainable building technologies and practices. The findings show how incumbents are responding to sustainability transitions through the process of creative accumulation, which integrate both new and existing knowledge to develop circular value propositions. The study argues that established players can be well-positioned to collaborate and capitalize on circular transitions if they adjust their business models to aligning around sustainable principles and balance between innovation and accumulated expertise.
Innovations based on sustainable technologies have been widely considered as a remedy for addressing societal and environmental problems in many industries. However, the large-scale adoption of such innovations goes beyond technology and requires organizing the business in a way that drive industrial transformations across actors and system layers, such as market structures, institutional frames, consumer behavior, and business values.
The aim of this dissertation is to understand how industrial firms organize for system change towards sustainability. The study is a compilation of two papers within the same research context: the development of sustainable technology in the construction industry. The overlapping unit of analysis for both papers is business model innovation. Paper I examines how industry firms combine and complement business models with different innovation types to accelerate sustainable technology. Paper II identifies how a change in the business model and value creation logic that occur on a firm level accelerate sustainable technology and shape the socio-technical system. Together, both papers help paint a more complete picture of the business model role in transitions towards sustainability. The theoretical frame of this dissertation spans several domains: business model, innovation management, and sustainability transitions. Building on a multi-disciplinary premise, the study takes into account the organizational and the systemic parts of the change process by linking the company perspective (business models) to the wider governance of sustainability transitions.
The findings underline the importance of business models that combine production efficiency with higher customer engagement and more collective value creation for driving larger-scale transitions toward sustainability. Moreover, business models in combination with different innovation types, such as product, process and positioning, act together and complement each other to achieve high sustainability and business outcomes.
Sustainability transitions are a significant challenge that requires established industries to adopt innovative ways of doing business. Research suggests that while this is possible through business model innovation (BMI), risk avoidance by regime actors and high levels of future uncertainty act as barriers to successful transitions. Specifically, we lack knowledge about how established companies innovate their business model (BM) to reduce uncertainty related to sustainability transitions. We explore the case of a large forest-based manufacturing company in the construction industry, Stora Enso. We find that, by pursuing transformative BMI and combining multiple value creation logics, a company can reduce different types of uncertainty while shaping its business ecosystem towards more sustainable opportunities. We show that the BM can serve as an organizational tool for collectively exploring new knowledge, reducing uncertainty and driving change in a business ecosystem.
Purpose Green innovation can promote both environmental sustainability and economic growth. However, its development and implementation can be complex due to the need to align innovation activities within and across companies. In this study, the authors examined how this complexity can be managed by analyzing how individual companies combine different innovation activities to develop green innovation, and how companies along the value chain align to implement these innovations. Design/methodology/approach The dataset comprises both interviews and a survey of senior executives from the Swedish wood construction industry. These data were first analyzed by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify innovation activity configurations at the level of the individual company. The interviews were then analyzed to identify alignment mechanisms enabling the implementation of green innovation along the value chain. Findings At the company level, the authors found three innovation activity configurations with varying levels of complexity: (1) systemic innovation by proactive companies, (2) process innovation by reactive companies and (3) inaction by technology-independent companies. On the value chain level, the authors found three alignment mechanisms that facilitate the implementation of green innovation along the value chain. These mechanisms promote cooperation by increasing efficiency, opening up new market opportunities and increasing the level of servitization. Originality/value This paper analyzes the complexity of green innovation and provides novel insights into how complexity is managed at the level of both the individual company and the value chain.