Good  idea - I made a start on decision support for waste management in a small firm which was to be a detailed case study, but funding stalled from Zero Waste Scotland - still a good idea.

Thank you!

 Wow, thank you so much for your help! I'll look at the suggested model and comeback to you.

It's a very interesting topic and there's so much room for reaserch here!

I found a publication that might be helpful, it deals with barriers and opportunities for SMEs:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2664489

More in general, there's a review on PSS models from Tukker that also highlights some of the barriers related to the adoption of this business model, which is one of the possible enablers of circular economy strategies.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652613008135#sec2

I hope this can help.

Fabiana 

Thank you Fabiana, I already found these articles. Especially the first one is really relevant for my research.

Thanks again for your help!

Michel

This is tangential to my interests but have you looked at any parallels / lessons from Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth? 

Hi.

Leonidas Papakonstantinidus offers some great input.  Mine is a practical approach. "What information are you going to gather?"

I understand your research question to be "Why don't SME's adopt circular business models?"  And this is in the context of modern supply chain practices. Presume you will be talking to the owners and if they have them, their procurement managers.

In the first place you need to investigate whether the SME even knows what circular business means.  Could their business incorporate any of the seven models (identified by Deloittes) That is:Cradle to Cradle / Take back / Deposits / Repair / Refurbishment / Re-manufacture /  Re-materialisation into new products.

Then: are there, or could be any imperatives that could force the company to consider a circular model. e.g. disappearance of resources; legal requirements; possible competitors practices; building competitive advantage; consumer pressure and so on.

Then I would establish the SME's attitude to developing a circular model in the business.  Where and how do they think they could introduce sustainable practices  into their SME? What functions and processes would have to change / be adjusted? (Thinking here of production, administration, technical, quality control and marketing in particular.)

Finally I would look at management;s requirements regarding the issues associated with ALL procurement / supplier selection in the B2B environment, probing for possibility / availability of a source of supply that would contribute to a circular model.

You need to explore the needs, attitudes and opinions and selection criteria of the procurement team regarding the ability of suppliers to provide:

• Quality of raw materials, components and supplies
• Supplier capacity to deliver consistently
• Financial stability of the various suppliers
• Availability of technical support
• Does the culture / ethics of available suppliers fit with the SME?
• What would happen to innovation?
• Would the SME's customers accept a product with recycled material?
• Total cost associated with dealing with a supplier
• Total cost to, and benefits to be achieved within the SME

 If you got respondents to rate the importance of the various factors for their business, and then the degree to which each applied to their business a clear picture would emerge of which aspects most affected a change to a circular model.

Regards Helen

Really practical approach! Thank you for sharing with me how you would approach the problem.

Regards,

Mike 

Some theoretical and practical approaches you may also find in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research named Maestri, follow the link:

http://maestri-spire.eu/

In which a large group of researchers and companies are adressing many of the issues, risks and barriers related to the circular economy and Industrial Symbiosis, using innovative sollutions to connect  and align the different interests between the stakeholders.

See also some really interesting background in another recent paper:

Fenna Blosma and Geralgine Brennan 2017- "The emerge of Circular Economy: a new framing around prolonging resource productivity" - Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Hope that it helps! Regards,

Aline

Hi Michel, you may find these papers interesting: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310782879_Implementation_of_Circular_Economy_Business_Models_by_Small_and_Medium-Sized_Enterprises_SMEs_Barriers_and_Enablers?_iepl%5BviewId%5D=g3FYp7vltIDkxDHFBwF38nLcvS2KWexdGUw5&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=prfhpi&_iepl%5Bdata%5D%5BstandardItemCount%5D=4&_iepl%5Bdata%5D%5BuserSelectedItemCount%5D=5&_iepl%5Bdata%5D%5BtopHighlightCount%5D=1&_iepl%5Bdata%5D%5BstandardItemIndex%5D=2&_iepl%5Bdata%5D%5BstandardItem2of4%5D=1&_iepl%5BtargetEntityId%5D=PB%3A310782879&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationTitle and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283121970_The_Circular_Economy_Barriers_and_Opportunities_for_SMEs?_iepl%5BviewId%5D=8L8YogLGE2xUBghyOxlwLdao&_iepl%5BprofilePublicationItemVariant%5D=default&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=prfpi&_iepl%5BtargetEntityId%5D=PB%3A283121970&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationTitle 

Article The Circular Economy: Barriers and Opportunities for SMEs

Article Implementation of Circular Economy Business Models by Small ...

Hi Michael, you can find this paper most appropriate to identify the barriers and drivers in CE implementation in small firms...https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318674910_Developing_an_extended_theory_of_planned_behavior_model_to_explore_circular_economy_readiness_in_manufacturing_MSMEs_India

Article Developing an extended theory of planned behavior model to e...

Hi Michael,

We analysed some of the barriers associated to the implementation of circular economy in business and propose a new framework ( Backcasting and Eco-Design for the Circular Economy: The BECE Framework ) to overcome them. We have applied this framework to a small IT company. You have all the info in:

Article Integrating Backcasting and Eco-Design for the Circular Econ...

Article Developing and implementing circular economy business models...