Circular economy revenue models: bottlenecks and implementation success factors

Follow-up to research project on circular business models

This research is a follow-up to the exploratory PWO project on circular business models (CBM). The results of this study show that there is great interest and motivation among companies to jump on the circular bandwagon, but that there is a lack of knowledge, networks and best practices.

Circular economy revenue models

Entrepreneurs who take the step often start with the so-called 'raw material models', which focus on the recovery and reuse of (processed) raw materials and components.

Other possible CBMs such as merit models (also referred to as product-service combinations (PDC) or Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)) where the responsibility for a product or material remains with the producer or importer, are used much less. However, these models can reduce the overconsumption of goods. In addition to resource benefits, research has also shown that earnings can be linked to higher and more stable profits.

Bottlenecks and success factors implementation of merit models

In this follow-up project, we therefore want to investigate what prevents companies from implementing these earnings models and which factors can influence their successful implementation.

We focus on companies:

• who have set up a profitable earning model within the circular economy;
• who are toying with the idea, but have not yet taken the step;
• who have stopped with this model.