A big challenge for the little ones

Implementing circular principles requires collaboration across company boundaries - especially for SMEs, which often have limited financial and organisational resources to mobilise. A purely company-centric view of circular business models falls short because it ignores the dependencies on partners, infrastructures and regulations. An ecosystem perspective, on the other hand, takes into account roles, relationships, material and data flows as well as governance mechanisms, thus opening up realistic paths to impact and scaling. The study "SMEs in the Circular Economy: Four Ecosystem Strategies for Circular Business Models" conducted by Swedish and Finnish scientists links this perspective to a decision-making grid: if you know your role in the ecosystem and its degree of maturity, you can choose a suitable strategy and implement it consistently. The aim is to make this logic understandable and translate it into action-oriented recommendations for the practice of the circular economy. The study was published in the journal "Organization & Environment".