The Circular Economy and SMEs

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-14566-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 104 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Routledge Focus on Economics and Finance

Circularity is a practice that not only increases efficient industry performance but its focus on resource management, waste reduction, innovation, stakeholder engagement, and operational excellence, also contributes to sustainable business and enhanced competitiveness.

This book focuses on the concept of the circular economy with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises. It defines circularity and the circular economy and investigates the development of the circularity concept as an important tool for a sustainable future. It contends that circularity promotes sustainability when products are designed to last longer, reducing the need for frequent replacement. As a result, economic development becomes more sustainable, fostering new jobs and industries centred on the approaches of rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle, and recover. It illustrates how the circular economy functions via case studies from the jewellery, fashion, plastics and agro-food industries.

The book argues that the future of circularity holds immense promise, driven by a growing global awareness of sustainability and resource scarcity, but that there are several challenges and gaps, such as the lack of a generalizable standard and globally applicable metric to accurately measure circularity at different levels, (material, product, system), lack of attention to technological innovation for resource recovery, recycling, and remanufacturing, and a lack of attention to developing sustainable Circular Business Models that prioritize circularity and value retention.

The book illustrates that there is a need to encourage a deeper investigation into the connection between circularity and sustainability, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. It will appeal to academics, students and researchers in economics, business and management, environmental science and sustainable development.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Khatami, Fahimeh

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Umweltökonomie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: The concept of circularity as a solution in ecosystem management -Fahimeh Khatami  Chapter 2: A circular fashion perspective and measuring circularity metrics -Fahimeh Khatami, Francesca Romana Rinaldi, Enrico Cagno  Chapter 3: Implementation of the digital ecosystem to improve the circularity -Fahimeh Khatami, Alberto Ferraris  Chapter 4: Integration of smart production with the circular economy, a way to enhance the circularity in the SMEs -Fahimeh Khatami  Chapter 5: Interactions between consumer skepticism and the circular economy -Fahimeh Khatami, Francesca Romana Rinaldi  Chapter 6: Managerial propositions and legal solutions for boosting the adoption of CBMs in example industries -Fahimeh Khatami, Enrico Cagno

Über Autor(innen)

Fahimeh Khatami is a junior assistance professor at the Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, Italy. Her research and teaching interests center on strategy implementation, circularity, innovation management and technology. She also focuses on how organizations, particularly within the fashion, luxury, and design sectors, can achieve sustainability and circularity.