Designing a Sustainable Business Models for Green Transition of SEZ in Campania—Towards the Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Launched by the Region of Campania in 2017, the special economic zone (SEZ) in Campania is being developed as a consequence of the various interventions supported by the Recovery Plan of the Italian government. Economic, fiscal, and regulatory measures are promoted in foreign nations (China, Africa, India, Europe, South-East Asia, etc.), and cur-rently in Italy, for the development of firms and the industrial sector in SEZ. Investment and consumption of production processes can lead to a polluted environment that impacts the lo-cal population and does not achieve the goal of sustainable development. This study proposes an analysis of all Campania SEZ and the introduction of a set of indicators to be used in Campanian SEZ to implement a circular economy business model across different areas (coastal, inner land, and intermediate areas) and to understand how these circular economy principles can interact with the current ecological transition for process decarbonization. This study’s methodology is based on a cross-qualitative investigation of indicators that link the sustainability of manufacturing and economic processes to environmental transformation. While foreign SEZs are rapidly increasing, Italian SEZs, notably in Campania, are still in their early stages. In this regard, the objective of this paper is to reinforce the topic of sustainability for the Campanian SEZ to support decision-making processes, as well as to provide further reflection on the development of Campanian SEZ in Italy through the lens of the ecological transition, and in line with foreign SEZs, to understand how decarbonization measures can be applied for a circular economy of production.