Design thinking is an innovation approach for organisations aiming to solve complex and open-ended problems, including those arising in the transition from a linear to a circular economic system. Although the importance has been recognised in business and academia, to date, insight is lacking on how design thinking can be applied within circular innovation specifically. We investigate the following research question: How can design thinking tools catalyse sustainable circular innovation? Based on the literature, we first create a framework that characterises design thinking principles, criteria and phases that could support circular innovation. The design thinking phases are ideate and design, implement and test, and evaluate and improve. The criteria include desirability, feasibility, viability and sustainability, and circularity. Finally, we identify the following principles that make design thinking suitable to tackle complex circular innovation challenges: human-centred, future-oriented, holistic, co-creative, and experimental. Consequently, against this framework, we map 11 tools that are suitable to catalyse circular innovation theory into practice through design thinking. Finally, we reflect on the future of research and practice around this subject.

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To achieve a transformation toward the circular economy, organizations need to take an ecosystem perspective and consider multiple complementary actors that are needed to deliver circularity as a collective outcome. However, practitioners and scholars lack an understanding of the initial phases of ecosystem creation, in terms of how to get started, and what to consider. We therefore investigate how organizations can initiate an ecosystem for a circular economy. The method consists of a concise review of the ecosystem literature and three instrumental cases, to identify important activities that are needed when initiating an ecosystem for circularity. The cases include: (1) an alliance for circular safety footwear, (2) a startup that turns old coffee ground and orange peel waste from another company into new products, and (3) a multi-stakeholder project aimed at recovering resources from wastewater. We propose a framework for a Minimum Viable Ecosystem for Circularity (MVEC) that includes a set of key activities to perform when building ecosystems for a circular economy. These activities provide a useful roadmap for scholars and practitioners for establishing and assessing ecosystems for circularity. We call for further research and practical applications to test and demonstrate the utility of this framework in different contexts.

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Digitalization is driving innovation towards a circular economy in various industries—but the construction industry is lagging behind. The building industry, a growth sector due to increasing urbanization, is at the same time actively depleting our resources, generating waste, and emitting greenhouse gases at a tremendous scale and speed. This chapter argues that we must urgently shift from a linear take–make–waste model to a circular one whereby we utilize our resources wisely and keep them from becoming waste. The experience of reusing the glass from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, confronted the architects with the many challenges we face when renovating a building with circular principles. Finding architects to use the iconic bent glass instead of crushing it for recycling (or worse, for disposing it in a landfill) turned out to be a time-consuming task. Adopting artificial intelligence and digital information sharing to match materials for reuse with people who can reuse them is exactly what the construction industry needs for a paradigm shift towards circularity.@en

Value preservation is key for the transition from a linear economy to a sufficiency-based circular economy. However, to keep the value of products and materials at the highest level possible over time, different actors such as businesses, designers, consumers, and policymakers must know when value is reduced during a product's lifetime, and how to capture and preserve this value. This study results in a comprehensive mapping of factors with a negative impact on the perceived value of products from a consumer's perspective and suggests new routes to value preservation, as a way of turning the negative factors into positive changes. Next, the paper presents a conceptual model for value preservation. The model identifies new key actors: value transformers (product developers), value co-operators (consumers), value gatekeepers (businesses), and value accountants (policymakers) and suggests important changes to their linear practices, which are needed for the sufficiency-based circular economy paradigm to flourish.@en

In the 1960s, influential thinkers defined design as a rational problem-solving approach to deal with the challenges of sustainable human development. In 2009, a design consultant and a business academic selected some of these ideas and successfully branded them with the term “design thinking.” As a result, design thinking has developed into a stream of innovation management research discussing how to innovate faster and better in competitive markets. This article aims to foster a reconsideration of the purposes of design thinking moving forward, in view of the sustainable development challenges intertwined with accelerating innovation in a perpetual economic growth paradigm. To this end, we use a problematization method to challenge innovation management research on design thinking. As part of this method, we first systematically collect and critically analyze the articles in this research stream. We uncover a prominent focus on economic impact, while social and environmental impacts remain largely neglected. To overcome this critical limitation, we integrate design thinking with responsible innovation theorizing. We develop a framework for responsible design thinking, explaining how to apply this approach beyond a private interest and competitive advantage logic, to address sustainable development challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, poverty, and injustice. The framework contributes to strengthening the practical relevance of design thinking and its theoretical foundations. To catalyze this effort, we propose an agenda for future research.

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The application of the circular economy (CE) in the building industry is critical for achieving the carbon reduction goals defined in the Paris Agreement and is increasingly promoted through European policies. In recent years, CE strategies have been applied and tested in numerous building projects in practice. However, insights into their application and decarbonisation potential are limited. This study analysed and visualised 65 novel real-world cases of new build, renovation, and demolition projects in Europe compiled from academic and grey literature. Cases were analysed regarding the circular solution applied, level of application in buildings, and decarbonisation potential reported, making this study one of the first comprehensive studies on the application and decarbonisation potential of circular strategies in the building industry in practice. The identified challenges of using LCA for CE assessment in buildings are discussed and methodological approaches for future research are suggested.

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Business model innovation is increasingly seen as a key competitive factor in B2B settings. In this context, prototyping, experimentation, and piloting have gained prominence as agile and resourceful methods that can be employed in business model innovation pursuits. Yet, despite increasing interest in this area, and the growing number of large B2B companies who also started deploying these methods, there is a lack of clarity on the conceptual boundaries between the three concepts. This may impede the advancement of business model innovation research and practices based on the three concepts. We address this gap by conducting a structured literature review, using cross-reference searches and a key informant interview study of 43 executives in 13 B2B organisations. We offer three contributions: (1) definitions for each of these three concepts, (2) seven dominant similarities and (3) five key differences across them. Our research shows that the concepts serve distinct purposes at different stages of the business model innovation process, and we discuss these findings and their broader implications for the literature on business model innovation and for innovation management practices in B2B companies.

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Circular economy (CE) and sharing economy (SE) are much discussed concepts but potential links between them have not been examined systematically so far. The concepts’ popularity coupled with a lack of definitional consensus may hinder their potential to advance sustainability transitions. Hence, the first comparative bibliometric study of these two concepts was carried out. It was found that they share notable links in the fields of sustainability, business models, sustainable consumption and governance. Business model literature reveals links mostly in the realms of platform- and service-based activities. The field of SE has a strong consumer focus but, unlike CE, barely addressed rebound effects so far. Governance literature shows a general top-down dynamic driving CE, while SE is considered to be bottom-up. SE is conceptualized as a subset of CE which opens possibilities for mutual enrichment. The findings aim to provoke more dialogue between the CE and SE communities.@en

Digital technologies are considered to be an essential enabler of the circular economy in various industries. However, to date, very few studies have investigated which digital technologies could enable the circular economy in the built environment. This study specifically focuses on the built environment as one of the largest, most energy- and material-intensive industries globally, and investigates the following question: which digital technologies potentially enable a circular economy in the built environment, and in what ways? The research uses an iterative stepwise method: (1) framework development based on regenerating, narrowing, slowing and closing resource loop principles; (2) expert workshops to understand the usage of digital technologies in a circular built environment; (3) a literature and practice review to further populate the emerging framework with relevant digital technologies; and (4) the final mapping of digital technologies onto the framework. This study develops a novel Circular Digital Built Environment framework. It identifies and maps ten enabling digital technologies to facilitate a circular economy in the built environment. These include: (1) additive/robotic manufacturing, (2) artificial intelligence, (3) big data and analytics, (4) blockchain technology, (5) building information modelling, (6) digital platforms/marketplaces, (7) digital twins, (8) the geographical information system, (9) material passports/databanks, and (10) the internet of things. The framework provides a fruitful starting point for the novel research avenue at the intersection of circular economy, digital technology and the built environment, and gives practitioners inspiration for sustainable innovation in the sector.@en