Towards a circular disruption:  On the pivotal role of circular economy policy entrepreneurs

Hinrika Droege; Julian Kirchherr; Andrea Raggi; Tomás Ramos

doi:10.1002/bse.3098

Towards a circular disruption: On the pivotal role of circular economy policy entrepreneurs

Hinrika Droege^*, Julian Kirchherr, Andrea Raggi, Tomás Ramos

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The shift towards sustainable development is argued to be achieved by a circular disruption triggered or supported by circular economy (CE) policies. CE policies can pressure the disruption of currently predominant linear socio-technical systems across sectors towards a circular paradigm. Knowledge on how these policies appear on the agenda is essential to accelerate the circular disruption. Several works highlight the importance of policy entrepreneurs as agenda setters. However, they were not explored by the scholarly community on CE yet. Therefore, this article analyses the characteristics and strategies of CE policy entrepreneurs in Portugal as a circular frontrunner in the European Union (EU). Two groups of policy entrepreneurs were distinguished based on their different characteristics and strategies. Successfully driving the adoption of national CE policies required ambitious, tenacious and perfectionist CE expert(s) who create a CE vision, derive concrete solutions and gather support for their ideas, the CE initiator. Influencing CE implementation and evaluation required politically savvy CE implementers who openly and tenaciously develop projects and secure the continuous development of the policy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1142-1158
Number of pages	17
Journal	Business Strategy and the Environment
Volume	32
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3098
Publication status	Published - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 765198.

Funding Information:
This research draws on CENSE which is financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal (UID/AMB/04085/2019).

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Ministry for the Environment and Climate Action for its partnership during this research. Thanks to Alexandra Carvalho, Susana Escária, Emídio Lopes and Ana Sofia Vaz for supporting the data collection. Thanks to all interviewees who shared their thoughts and expertise. This research draws on CENSE which is financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal (UID/AMB/04085/2019). This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765198.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

Circular economy
Disruption
Policy entrepreneur
Policy making
Stakeholder
Sustainable development

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1002/bse.3098Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Bus Strat Env - 2022 - Droege - Towards a circular disruption On the pivotal role of circular economy policy entrepreneursFinal published version, 797 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Towards a circular disruption: On the pivotal role of circular economy policy entrepreneurs",

abstract = "The shift towards sustainable development is argued to be achieved by a circular disruption triggered or supported by circular economy (CE) policies. CE policies can pressure the disruption of currently predominant linear socio-technical systems across sectors towards a circular paradigm. Knowledge on how these policies appear on the agenda is essential to accelerate the circular disruption. Several works highlight the importance of policy entrepreneurs as agenda setters. However, they were not explored by the scholarly community on CE yet. Therefore, this article analyses the characteristics and strategies of CE policy entrepreneurs in Portugal as a circular frontrunner in the European Union (EU). Two groups of policy entrepreneurs were distinguished based on their different characteristics and strategies. Successfully driving the adoption of national CE policies required ambitious, tenacious and perfectionist CE expert(s) who create a CE vision, derive concrete solutions and gather support for their ideas, the CE initiator. Influencing CE implementation and evaluation required politically savvy CE implementers who openly and tenaciously develop projects and secure the continuous development of the policy.",

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note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 765198. Funding Information: This research draws on CENSE which is financed by Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal (UID/AMB/04085/2019). Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Ministry for the Environment and Climate Action for its partnership during this research. Thanks to Alexandra Carvalho, Susana Esc{\'a}ria, Em{\'i}dio Lopes and Ana Sofia Vaz for supporting the data collection. Thanks to all interviewees who shared their thoughts and expertise. This research draws on CENSE which is financed by Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal (UID/AMB/04085/2019). This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765198. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.",

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