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Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies.

ABSTRACT: The Circular Economy is a paradigm shift attempting to replace the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and to slow down, close and narrow material and power loops. This concept is much discussed in the academic literature, but limited progress has been accomplished so far regarding its empirical analysis. The objective of this work is to study circular economy practices and analyze in depth the circular economy behavior in European firms. We find that firms' circular economy behavior is a gradual process where measures are implemented gradually, starting with activities involving control measures and ending with putting preventive practices in place. We discovered also that the most proactive companies in implementing circular economy measures generally come across certain common barriers such as administrative processes, regulations and a lack of human resources to perform these practices, while firms that have not implemented circular economy measures view financing, investment and cost?benefit barriers as the most significant. Significant efforts need to be undertaken by firms to accomplished circular economy. Also circular economy regulation should be improved to make it easier for companies to implement strategies that will make them more sustainable.

SUBMITTER: Garces-Ayerbe C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6427659 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies.

Garcés-Ayerbe Concepción C Rivera-Torres Pilar P Suárez-Perales Inés I Leyva-de la Hiz Dante I DI

International journal of environmental research and public health 20190308 5

The Circular Economy is a paradigm shift attempting to replace the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and to slow down, close and narrow material and power loops. This concept is much discussed in the academic literature, but limited progress has been accomplished so far regarding its empirical analysis. The objective of this work is to study circular economy practices and analyze in depth the circular economy behavior in European firms. We find that f ...[more]

PMID: 30857193

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Project description:Background: Equitable access to health services can be constrained in countries where private practitioners make up a large portion of primary care providers. Expanding purchasing arrangements has helped many countries integrate private providers into government-supported payment schemes, reducing financial barriers to care. However, private providers often must go through an onerous accreditation process to enroll in these schemes. The difficulties of this process are exacerbated where health policy is changed often and low-level bureaucrats must navigate these shifts at their own discretion. This paper analyzes one initiative to increase private provider accreditation with social health insurance (SHI) in Kenya by creating an intermediary between providers and "street-level" SHI bureaucrats. Methods: This paper draws on 126 semi-structured interviews about SHI accreditation experience with private providers who were members of a franchise network in Kenya. It also draws on four focus group discussions conducted with franchise representatives who provided accreditation support to the providers and served as liaisons between the franchised providers and local SHI offices. There was a total of 20 participants across all four focus groups. Results: In a governance environment where regulations are weak and impermanent, street-level bureaucrats often created an accreditation process that was inconsistent and opaque. Support from the implementing organizations increased communication between SHI officials and providers, which clarified rules and increased providers' confidence in the system. The intermediaries also reduced bureaucrats' ability to apply regulations at will and helped to standardize the accreditation process for both providers and bureaucrats. Conclusions: We conclude that intermediary organizations can mitigate institutional weaknesses and facilitate process efficiency. However, intermediaries only have a temporary role to play where there is potential to: 1) directly increase private providers' power in a complex regulatory system; 2) reform the system itself to be more responsive to the limitations of on-the-ground implementation.

Dataset Information

Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies.

Publications

Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies.

Similar Datasets

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