TY - JOUR
T1 - Employee skills for circular business model implementation
T2 - A taxonomy
AU - Straub, Lucas
AU - Hartley, Kris
AU - Dyakonov, Ivan
AU - Gupta, Harsh
AU - van Vuuren, Detlef
AU - Kirchherr, Julian
N1 - Funding Information:
A stronger effort by businesses is needed to identify and develop circular thinking among all employees. CBM implementation is influenced by decisions across all business functions including in strategic management, marketing, logistics, digital and finance – and execution of these functions from upper management to the ‘ground level.’ This holistic perspective is under-recognized but has the potential to support novel thinking about CBM implementation and the employee skills needed for it. Circular narratives (through circular storytelling) can promote understanding and recognition of circular skills among the employee base and beyond, enabling wider CE transition towards the mainstream.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - A growing body of scholarship has examined circular business models as a pathway towards sustainability. However, employee skills to support such business models have been largely overlooked. Addressing this research gap, this article proposes a comprehensive skill taxonomy for start-ups embracing circular economy transition. As the first large-N effort to develop a comprehensive skill taxonomy for circular business model implementation, this study uses a clustering analysis of self-reported skill profiles for 2407 staff working in circular start-ups. The taxonomy outlines 40 skills across six categories: business innovation, operations, social dimensions, systems, digitization, and technical issues. Findings suggest that circular business model implementation requires a set of general, sustainable, and circular skills, but some of these skills have been neglected in scholarship. Promoting circular narratives as a framing device for skill development can help advance CE towards mainstream uptake, and this study's taxonomy offers a practical framework for using talent to accelerate CE transition.
AB - A growing body of scholarship has examined circular business models as a pathway towards sustainability. However, employee skills to support such business models have been largely overlooked. Addressing this research gap, this article proposes a comprehensive skill taxonomy for start-ups embracing circular economy transition. As the first large-N effort to develop a comprehensive skill taxonomy for circular business model implementation, this study uses a clustering analysis of self-reported skill profiles for 2407 staff working in circular start-ups. The taxonomy outlines 40 skills across six categories: business innovation, operations, social dimensions, systems, digitization, and technical issues. Findings suggest that circular business model implementation requires a set of general, sustainable, and circular skills, but some of these skills have been neglected in scholarship. Promoting circular narratives as a framing device for skill development can help advance CE towards mainstream uptake, and this study's taxonomy offers a practical framework for using talent to accelerate CE transition.
KW - Capabilities
KW - Circular business models
KW - Circular economy
KW - Skill taxonomy
KW - Skills
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153682867&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137027
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137027
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85153682867
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 410
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 137027
ER -