Supporting start‐ups in the circular economy: An analysis of university‐led incubators in India

Marianna Lena Kambanou, Pinosh Kumar Hajoary and Axel Lindfors

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2025, vol. 29, issue 3, 997-1012

Abstract: Innovation and entrepreneurship will be important parts of India's transition toward a circular economy. Since start‐ups do not suffer from being locked into linear business models or overcoming organizational inertia, they play a key role in this transition. However, circular start‐ups face many challenges, both in general and specifically related to circular business models. Here, incubators can offer assistance and support, facilitating the establishment and early growth of start‐ups, but exactly how this should be done remains an area where little prior research has been done. Because of this, this study analyzed three university‐led incubators spread across different institutes of national importance in India. Results showed that while incubators did offer a variety of support functions to start‐ups, they did not offer any specific support to circular start‐ups, nor any support aimed at helping regular start‐ups become more circular. Both the support functions of the incubators and the needs of the circular start‐ups are detailed in the results. Furthermore, the competence and knowledge levels regarding the circular economy were found to be low. To help further improve incubators within this area, several recommendations were made, including developing tailored support functions for circular start‐ups in collaboration with university faculty, establishing incubators that specialize in supporting circular start‐ups, and integrating activities related to understanding and fostering the circular economy in their regular incubation processes.

Date: 2025
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