Entrepreneurship in the circular economy - The influence of vision and ambition on motivation, growth and scalability

Abstract

The circular economy is becoming an increasingly discussed topic within business, yet incumbents still struggle with implementing circular strategies. Start-ups, however, prove a promising avenue for the implementation of new innovations such as circularity. Whilst in the entrepreneurial field currently many founders attempt to create circular start-ups, and awards and programs specifically focussed on supporting this group of circular actors are increasing, there is currently little research on this new breed of entrepreneurs. Therefore, this dissertation set out to create a first insight into the vision and ambition of founders creating a circular start-up. Via semi-structured interviews, circular and linear entrepreneurs were analysed to determine (i) their founder identities and resulting prioritizations, (ii) their entrepreneurial motivation through the multi-dimensional typologies and opportunity-necessity framework and (iii) their ambition and perspectives on growth and scalability resulting from their vision. The findings indicate that circular entrepreneurs have a missionary identity, albeit with hybrid tensions within their prioritizations. Furthermore, they are motivated by both an intrinsic form of necessity and an extrinsic opportunity. Lastly, they focus on growing their impact instead of other more regular types of growth found within linear entrepreneurs. The circularity strategies they pursue to achieve this are mainly focussed on either the “reduce” or “recycle” conceptualization, with their main scaling strategies involving either consumer engagement and product design for the former, and input-oriented industrial symbiosis for the latter. Recommendations are given for future research and policy guidance to further support the topic of circular entrepreneurship.