Lost in Transition? Drivers and Barriers in the Eco-Innovation Road to the Circular Economy

Ana de Jesus () and Sandro Mendonça ()
Additional contact information
Ana de Jesus: CENSE - Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Sandro Mendonça: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal; Research Unit on Complexity and Economics (UECE-ISEG), Lisboa, Portugal; Business, SPRU, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: Understanding which drivers and barriers exist in the development of a Circular Economy (CE) is a relevant and timely endeavour. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by analysing evidence regarding the different factors helping and hampering the development of a CE. Specifically, this paper focuses on the eco-innovation (EI) pathway towards a CE, and tries to coordinate available but fragmented findings regarding how “transformative innovation” can foster this transition while removing obstacles to sustainability. Drawing upon a new corpus of both academic and non-academic literature, this work offers a framework for analysis, as well as an evidence-based survey of the challenges, for a green structural change of the economy. We argue that the combination of the innovation systems’ view with the more recent “transformation turn” in innovation studies may provide an appropriate perspective for understanding the transition to a CE. Ultimately, the paper aims to capitalise on these insights to contribute to the design of policy guidelines and organisational strategies.

Keywords: circular economy; eco-innovation; barriers; drivers; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-hme, nep-ino and nep-tid
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php? ... -mendona.pdf&site=25 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:2017-18

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by University of Sussex Business School Communications Team ().