Toward circular business models and supply chains in manufacturing: Building circular dynamic capabilities

The imperative of implementing sustainability is increasingly being recognized in supply chain management, and interest in the circular economy (CE) concept is growing concurrently. As a long-term strategic approach, the CE promotes industrial production systems designed to recirculate products. Although the CE is widely recognized as an ideal across various types of organizations and industries, its practical application needs to be improved. The literature shows there to be a need for a deeper exploration of the conceptualization, design, and adoption of the CE. This is critical to overcome the barriers hindering firms’ efforts to recirculate products. Moreover, the literature needs to be expanded, with a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic capabilities (DCs) needed in integrating CE into long-term corporate strategies. This dissertation addresses these challenges by combining theoretical and empirical approaches from four distinct perspectives and provides a systematic literature review of the circular supply chain (CSC) barriers, the necessary modifications to business models, a transition to CSC through circular DCs, and an investigation of the nexus between capabilities and the circular business model (CBM). A qualitative research approach was adopted utilizing primarily case studies of manufacturing companies. The empirical data included semi-structured interviews, surveys, and the use of triangulation. The findings highlight that the circularity barriers faced by firms can be mitigated through the adoption of a CSC. A set of circular DCs for facilitating the implementation of CE practices was identified and evaluated. The research also analyzed the CBM capabilities needed to enhance companies’ circularity rate.