Mainstreaming innovative circular economy solutions—A comparative study between entrepreneurs in developed versus emerging markets and developing economies

Abstract

This paper aims at enabling the acceleration of CE transitions by offering insights into processes that need to take place to mainstream (or scale from niches to regimes) entrepreneurial solutions in two contexts, i.e., developed versus emerging markets and developing economies. Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in spurring innovation. The emergence of innovative solutions is a prerequisite for unlocking CE transitions. Yet, to sustain the transitions, it is critical that the solutions are mainstreamed. The mainstreaming is facilitated by strategic collective system building activities of entrepreneurs as a necessary but probably not sufficient element of CE transitions. Based on a qualitative approach to assessing such activities, involving an online survey and interviews with entrepreneurs in Austria and Southern Mediterranean, the research results reveal that technological innovation is significantly more important in developed economies in comparison to emerging markets and developing economies, where societal innovation is at the core of CE transitions. Also, raising user awareness and competition with incumbents are significantly more important in emerging markets and developing economies than in developed economies. In both contexts, knowledge development within a company is the key activity enabling mainstreaming of innovative CE solutions.