Value Co-Creation in Circular Entrepreneurship: an Exploratory Study on Born Circular SMEs

This article contributes to the entrepreneurship literature regarding the empirical analysis of the dyadic co-creation processes through which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) co-create value with their key actors. The context of analysis is circular entrepreneurship, which concerns the processes of formation and exploitation of opportunities to address key environmental challenges. Circular firms tend to develop collaborative value co-creating processes with different actors to narrow, slow, and close the resource loops. Through a multiple case study methodology, involving six born circular SMEs established in Italy and their key co-creating actors, we analyze the dyadic value co-creation mechanisms between circular firms and each actor. We contribute to the emerging circular entrepreneurship literature by developing an empirical model of circular co-creation processes and their underlying mechanisms and by advancing a set of Propositions to be tested in future research.