Abstract
Circular Economy has undoubtedly become one of the hot topics, particularly in Europe, in public debates about new and more sustainable industrial paradigms needed for giving a boost to a post-crisis economy. In this respect, the fashion of Circular Economy is in the fact that it aims at overcoming the dominant linear take, make, disposal model. A model that “relies on large quantities of easily accessible resources and energy, and as such is increasingly unfit to the reality in which it operates”, where resources are neither so abundant nor so accessible. Despite the interest for Circular Economy by politicians and practitioners, scholars, particularly in strategic management field, are still struggling with a representation of Circular Economy based on macro-loops mainly associated with the product-life extension, its redistribution/reuse, remanufacturing and recycling. In other words, there is still a lack of a framework explaining whether and how companies willing to embrace Circular Economy should change their business models. By extensively reviewing the extant literature on Circular Economy and Business Models, we propose a new taxonomy of Circular Economy Business Models based on the degree of adoption of circularity along two major dimensions: (i) customer value proposition & interface, i.e. the positioning against competitors in the market; (ii) value network, i.e. the organization of internal activities and the relationships with suppliers. The taxonomy is then initially tested through some explorative case studies, showing in practice the ability of the framework to properly distinguish different modes of adoption of Circular Economy.