Circular Business Models in Biological Cycles: The case of an Italian Start-Up

As a new economic model fostering increased resource efficiency, the circular economy has become the subject of academic research, national and supranational policies and attracted the interest of business leaders recently. The primary role of corporations and business model innovation to make significant progress towards a circular economy has been emphasised in scholarly literature. However, there is a dearth of academic studies investigating examples of circular economy implementation at the company level and, particularly, in the bio-based industry. Hence, this article contributes to the academic literature by casting some light on the characteristics of circular business models in a practical, bio-based context, using a theoretical framework that bridges academic and practitioners’ literature on the circular economy and business models. To illustrate our points we draw on an in-depth, qualitative case of a circular start-up from the Italian ecological paint market. Albeit constrained in its generalisability, this research does provide some useful insights concerning how companies design and implement circular activities and business models.