Investigating the Challenges of Born-Circular Startups

The poster presents the thesis with the topic Investigating the Challenges of born-circular startups. This thesis intends to shed light on the challenges of startups that aim for a circular economy business model from the beginning, so-called born-circular startups. In recent years, the circular economy (CE) has received increasing attention from practitioners and policymakers, as well as scholars. The concept is recognized as a way to move beyond the current linear "take-make-waste" economic model towards a more sustainable circular economy (CE). As an alternative to the linear economic model, CE seeks to decouple prosperity from resource consumption and is designed and intended to focus on recovery and thereby replacing the end-of-life concept. Moreover, research states that CE is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. Since startups are considered a driving force to implement the principles of CE in a quick and easy way and contribute to the circular innovation system, they are the source of investigation in this thesis. Research on born-circular startups is sparse and has mostly been studied qualitatively. ... mehrThese few studies applied mostly case studies focused on a certain region and/or industry. This thesis examines how to conceptually define a born-circle startup and which criteria describe it. Furthermore, a particular research gap exists with regard to the challenges start-ups face in developing a circular business model (CBM), which this dissertation project aims to contribute to. Although the CE literature on born-circular startups provides insight into the challenges they face in becoming a serious player in the market, it is still fragmented. The challenges need to be enriched, brought together, mapped, and the success factors extracted to better understand the nature of "born-circular" startups. For this purpose, a Design Science Research (DSR) approach is pursued in this thesis. The current focus is on the first step of this approach, exploring the problem in depth and build a sound knowledge base about CE and its challenges for startups.