Bibliography Circular Business Models August 2020

Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations

Why is change, even if it is wanted, so difficult? Sustainability officers in large and small companies are plagued by this question every day. Why do established companies continuously reproduce linear business models, constantly manifest themselves as linearly oriented value creation systems, although they pursue the intention of developing circular business models and putting them into practice?

Florian Hofmann from Fraunhofer IZM, together with Prof. Dr. Melanie Jaeger-Erben from the Center for Technology and Society at the TU Berlin published a scientific paper in early August in the scientific journal “Business Strategy and the Environment”, which deals in detail with this question.

The article shows which organization-related conditions and management recipes can have a supportive effect in order to take the first promising steps towards circular business model innovations. These are business models that preserve material in cycles and thus in economic use. In conclusion, three theses are set out which requirements are necessary for the design of successful change management for circular business models:

1. Autonomous experiment rooms (circular design laboratory)
2. Management of paradoxes with a systemic approach
3. Moderation based on normative reference framework

The scientific text is complex and not easy, but in our opinion, it is extremely readable. Because only if we stop treading on the spot and sometimes turn left or right can we find new, circular paths.