The circular business model and its barriers - through the eyes of Swedish professionals

Abstract

Society and the business community are facing severe sustainability issues, such as resource scarcity leading to increasing commodity prices on resources, e.g., oil, or water scarcity which would impact both firms and society profoundly. This development is due to our current way of pursuing business with a linear business model. Nevertheless, there are ways for firms to address and work against these issues, where one way is adopting circular business models. However, since these models fail to be widespread in the business community due to numerous barriers and uncertainties, the advancement of circular business models is hindered. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to create a better understanding of why Swedish firms are struggling in adopting circular business models and what measures are viewed as most effective to advance circular business models. The methodological approach for this thesis is a qualitative survey conducted on Swedish professionals. The main finding illustrates the existence of numerous barriers which complicate the adoption of circular business models for Swedish firms, where the most prominent are lack of knowledge within the firm, regulation, lack of financial capital and lack of cooperation between various actors. Concerning what measures are most effective for the advancement of circular business models, a key finding demonstrates that an overwhelming majority of Swedish professionals propose measures concerning regulation.