Circular Economy Entrepreneurship in Denmark

ended

Circular economy entrepreneurship is an emerging field that emphasise joint economic and ecological value creation. Unlike the other forms of entrepreneurship, it combines business practices and sustainable development, which consequently transform business sectors and societies. Circular economy entrepreneurship involves various stakeholders with entrepreneurs playing a central role in providing solutions to natural resources depletion and environmental degradation. To achieve this feat, entrepreneurs need new attitudes and behaviours, new business models and processes, and new partnerships. Although interest in circular economy entrepreneurship is increasing, extant academic research is scarce and boundaries set by existing entrepreneurship literature need extension to take into consideration resource depletion, environmental aspects and socio-technical issues. At present, very little is known about how entrepreneurs build new ventures that create and support a circular economy whilst being economically viable and competitive. The overall purpose of the CEED project is to contribute to the transition to a circular economy by identifying the enablers and barriers for CE entrepreneurship. CEED is an explorative research project that uses a combination of methods to develop innovative solutions to overcome these barriers in Denmark and beyond. CEED will contribute to research excellence in this emerging area through the analysis of best practices to reveal the patterns of the interaction between the circular economy and entrepreneurship. The benefits of the project include strengthening the research, teaching and management skills of the researcher. These skills are necessary for a tenure track position. Identified opportunities for the integration of CE entrepreneurship into the curriculum at SDU and other universities .The findings will be of practical and policy relevance in accelerating the transition to a circular economy at the national and European levels.