1. Guest editorialCircular economy and entrepreneurial ecosystems: a missing link?
- Author
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Ferreira, João J. and Dabic, Marina
- Subjects
Circular economy ,entrepreneurial ecosystems, holistic approach ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law - Abstract
Theoretical background Over the last 60 years, governments in advanced countries have adopted a range of environmental, industrial, and business policies (e.g. OECD, 2014 ; Warwick, 2013 ; Dabic et al., 2016 ; Svarc et al., 2020, 2021). In the last 20 years, we have witnessed an escalation in both the number of political initiatives and the degrees of funding committed to these activities in process of development (Block, 2008). In the circular economy (CE) action plan (COM, 2015, p. 614), a CE is defined as an economy in which “the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimized”. The European resource efficiency platform’s manifesto and policy recommendations present a foundation for a resource-efficient Europe, providing potential avenues towards a resource-efficient CE (EC, 2012). The European Commission has carried out studies to identify new opportunities to approach CE in different ways. The 2016 report – “Circular economy in Europe ; Developing the knowledge base” – gathered and classified all of the information that we must better understand in order to facilitate an action plan for the transition to CE. CE supports an economic model that removes resource inputs and wastage through a holistic approach to the system (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016). Consequently, policymakers are now beginning to recognise the value of a more systems based way of supporting the CE from an entrepreneurial perspective. This embodies a change away from enterprise-specific involvements towards more holistic activities which focus on “developing networks, aligning priorities, building new institutional capabilities and fostering synergies between different stakeholders” (OECD, 2014, p. 5). This holistic approach enables the systemic consideration of the implications of the paradigm shift, which includes interactions between different domains of the human being (economic, social, and environmental), different geographic regions (spatial dimension), and different groups (temporal/dynamic dimension).
- Published
- 2022