Entrepreneurial Drivers for the Development of the Circular Business Model: The Role of Academic Spin-Off

Abstract

Circular Economy represents today a new economic paradigm based on the environment and on the recovery of material. The pursuit of this change can be implemented through different policies with a top-down or bottom-up approach. Following the latter approach Spin-Offs, typically defined as “Science Based” companies, represent an alternative tool to promote technology transfer. In other words, they represent a bridge between the research and the production system. This part of the study is part of a larger and more complex project whose objective is to verify whether the development of research Spin-Offs and in particular academics, operating in the environment sector, or more generally sustainable, facilitate the transition from the classic model of linear economics to the innovative model of circular economics. The aim of the paper is to investigate how spin off enterprises can be a driver for the development of a Circular Business Model and to facilitate the transition from the classical model of linear economy to the new model of Circular Economy. At the methodological level, a multiple compared analysis was made between a sample of firms located in Lazio Region- Italy, that operates in the area of green economy Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). The analysis shows a rapid succession of variables that lead to the identification of four scenarios, deriving from the interconnection of the outcome: “closed loop”, “open loop” and the presence or absence of Circular Economy practices. The result confirms that the Academic Spin-Offs can be a driver of Circular economy, as long as that fall within the IV scenario, characterized by the interconnection of an open loop system that works in a circular approach. The “High valorization of waste” represents the discriminant in this scenario, which allows to activate a cascade system in a multi-stakeholder perspective.