Towards circular economy implementation: a comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry

The aim of this paper is to advance research on sustainable innovation by adopting a business model perspective. Through a confrontation of the literature on both topics we find that research on sustainable innovation has tended to neglect the way in which firms need to combine a value proposition, the organization of the upstream and downstream value chain, and a financial model, in order to bring sustainability innovations to the market. Therefore, we review the current literature on business models in the contexts of technological, organizational, and social sustainability innovations. As the current literature does not offer a general conceptual definition of sustainable business models, we propose examples of normative 'boundary conditions' that business models should meet in order to support sustainable innovations. Finally, we sketch the outline of a research agenda by formulating a number of guiding questions.

Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State of the Art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda

– The purpose of this paper is to report the state‐of‐the‐art of servitization by presenting a clinical review of literature currently available on the topic. The paper aims to define the servitization concept, report on its origin, features and drivers and give examples of its adoption along with future research challenges., – In determining the scope of this study, the focus is on articles that are central and relevant to servitization within a wider manufacturing context. The methodology consists of identifying relevant publication databases, searching these using a wide range of key words and phrases associated with servitization, and then fully reviewing each article in turn. The key findings and their implications for research are all described., – Servitization is the innovation of an organisation's capabilities and processes to shift from selling products to selling integrated products and services that deliver value in use. There are a diverse range of servitization examples in the literature. These tend to emphasize the potential to maintain revenue streams and improve profitability., – Servitization does not represent a panacea for manufactures. However, it is a concept of significant potential value, providing routes for companies to move up the value chain and exploit higher value business activities. There is little work to date that can be used to help practitioners., – This paper provides a useful review of servitization and a platform on which to base more in‐depth research into the broader topic of service‐led competitive strategy by drawing on the work from other related research communities.

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The servitization of manufacturing: A review of literature and reflection on future challenges

Product services for a resource-efficient and circular economy - A review

Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with policy makers and academics there is limited empirical evidence to explore the extent to which it is being adopted in practice. And if so, what the impact of this servitization of manufacturing might be. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the literature by presenting empirical evidence on the range and extent of servitization. Data are drawn from the OSIRIS database on 10,028 firms incorporated in 25 different countries. The paper presents an analysis of these data which suggests that: [i] manufacturing firms in developed economies are adopting a range of servitization strategies—12 separate approaches to servitization are identified; [ii] these 12 categories can be used to extend the traditional three options for servitization—product oriented Product–Service Systems, use oriented Product–Service Systems and result oriented Product–Service Systems, by adding two new categories “integration oriented Product–Service Systems” and “service oriented Product–Service Systems”; [iii] while the manufacturing firms that have servitized are larger than traditional manufacturing firms in terms of sales revenues, at the aggregate level they also generate lower profits as a % of sales; [iv] these findings are moderated by firm size (measured in terms of numbers of employees). In smaller firms servitization appears to pay off while in larger firms it proves more problematic; and [v] there are some hidden risks associated with servitization—the sample contains a greater proportion of bankrupt servitized firms than would be expected.

/pdf/exploring-the-financial-consequences-of-the-servitization-of-35vleo37zj.pdf

Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing

Product-services as a research field: past, present and future. Reflections from a decade of research

Foreword Bas de Leeuw, UNEP DTIE, France Part I: Product-services: The context 1. Introduction Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands Part II: Fundamentals concerning competitiveness and sustainability 2. Product-services: A specific value proposition Arnold Tukker and Christiaan van den Berg, TNO, The Netherlands, and Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany 3. Product-services and competitiveness Arnold Tukker and Christiaan van den Berg, TNO, The Netherlands 4. Product-services and sustainability Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands, and Ursula Tischner and Martijn Verkuijl, econcept, Germany Part III: Product-service development 5. The toolbox for product-service development Martijn Verkuijl and Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany, and Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands Part IV: Potential for product-services in five need areas 6. Introduction to the need area-specific chapters Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands 7. Need area 1: Base materials Rui Fraz 8. Need area 2: Information and communication technologies Martin Charter, Graham Adams and Tom Clark, Centre for Sustainable Design, UK 9. Need area 3: Offices Martijn Verkuijl and Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany 10. Need area 4: Food Erik Tempelman, Peter Joore, Tom van der Horst and Helma Luiten, TNO, The Netherlands 11. Need area 5: Households An Vercalsteren and Theo Geerken, VITO, Belgium Part V: Reflections and conclusions 12. Towards an integrated approach to PSS design Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany, and Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands 13. Conclusions Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands, and Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany Annex 1: A practical guide for PSS development Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany, and Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands Annex 2: tools, alphabetical Martijn Verkuijl and Ursula Tischner, econcept, Germany, and Arnold Tukker, TNO, The Netherlands

New Business for Old Europe : Product-Service Development, Competitiveness and Sustainability

Fostering change to sustainable consumption and production: an evidence based view

How to do EcoDesign?: a guide for environmentally and economically sound design

For some years, the printing industry has been faced with environmental problems like emissions of waste volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other hazardous substances. A lot has been done to eliminate these end-of-pipe problems. One project, focused on opportunities to optimise the environmental features of prepress and printing machines at an early stage of the life cycle e.g. the design phase, is discussed in this text. Under the heading of the ‘Implementation of Eco-design Concepts in Companies of the Machine Engineering Industry’ the project was carried out by econcept and Europe’s largest printing machine manufacturer Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. with the support of the German Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) was planned as a test case for implementing eco-design in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the main activities were concentrated on the business unit Prepress in Kiel, Germany. It aimed at developing innovative and effective tools, which were easy to implement into the usual and daily procedures of the company. During the project typical products of the business unit were analysed, an environmental handbook for product development was developed, and education programmes and information was generated for the employees, customers and waste managers. Finally, the systematic integration of knowledge and tools into the existing formalised product development process of the company lead to environmentally optimised products and financial advantages.

Ursula Tischner

Papers

Product-services as a research field: past, present and future. Reflections from a decade of research

New Business for Old Europe : Product-Service Development, Competitiveness and Sustainability

Fostering change to sustainable consumption and production: an evidence based view

How to do EcoDesign?: a guide for environmentally and economically sound design

Eco-design in the printing industry Life cycle thinking: Implementation of Eco-design concepts and tools into the routine procedures of companies