Background As of today the textile and fashion industry mainly relies on a linear production model, also referred to as the take-make-waste system. This economy depends solely on the single use of raw materials leaving space for an open-ended production and no intention of salvaging or recovering resources. Such a system cannot be supported by the environment in the future; therefore, several stakeholders are starting to embrace circular production systems and a closed-loop economy. One example of these efforts is take-back schemes (TBS) which strive to make the fashion industry more regenerative and restorative by narrowing, slowing, and closing the resource loops. Nonetheless, practitioners and academia have found adversities during the implementation stage which instead require competent knowledge, skills, and unique capabilities to achieve a successful performance. Purpose To achieve a successful implementation of a TBS, companies require unique capabilities that allow them to adapt and adopt a sustainable innovation. Therefore, this study investigates the dynamic capabilities (DCs) needed to implement a TBS in order to provide practitioners and academia with a guide that eases the application, overcomes the known adversities as well as explores the relationship between these and the relevant DCs. Methodology The research was based on a multiple case study method embracing abductive reasoning by extending the theory of DCs for circular business model implementation to TBS within the fashion industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three companies applying different types of take-back schemes; the primary data was strengthened by document research and a validation round of interviews. The data was analyzed through qualitative thematic content analysis. Further, the characteristics of the study lend themselves well to be represented through a qualitative causal loop diagram appropriate for developing novel solution strategies such as the DCs. Findings The results show, through the use of two maps, that several DCs have to be developed when implementing a TBS in order to reach a substantial competitive advantage in the form of a cost leadership, differentiation or focus strategy. Further, the causal loop maps also shed light on the different relationships between DCs and how these can be exploited to overcome the difficulties or utilizing the possibilities in implementing a TBS. Practical implications and research limitations - The thesis creates new insights on TBS implementation through the use of DCs by presenting two causal loop maps. Thus, aiding practitioners and allowing them to quickly recognize their current situation against the maps as well as what changes need to be made following the suggested capabilities. The study is limited by the choice of interviewed companies, which represent only retailers with TBS in Sweden.

The introduction of 5G technology in combination with smart cities will revolutionize the world economically and from the quality of life point of view. Different sectors will be impacted by this revolution such as (1) public health and safety, (2) mobility and transportation and (3) energy and water. This thesis will focus on Public Health and Safety. The characteristics that affect or boost the Return on Investment of 5G investments will be analyzed and a business model for the proper implementation of such investments will be presented. We will use the regression analysis to study the characteristics that affect the Return on Investment using 5G in Public Health and Safety. We will also use the VISOR model to define a business model for one of the services in Public Health and Safety namely the infectious disease surveillance. Our goal is to study this field of industry dynamics, technology and innovation and provide a holistic view from selecting the service up to identifying the business model.

Purpose of the study. This thesis deals with the role of sustainable purpose in the formation of sustainable start-ups. It aims to determine if sustainable purpose was a reason to start a company, what caused the emergence of sustainable purpose within the entrepreneurs, and how this purpose can benefit the enterprise. The study design. The study first defines sustainable purpose by juxtaposing selected concepts, models, and frameworks that aim to harmonize doing business and positive contribution to the planet and people. Based on that, we conducted semi-structured interviews with founders of sustainable start-ups (N=9). These were analysed via a qualitative content analysis and cross evaluation. Major findings. The findings were divided into six major categories. Interviewees contributed knowledge and opinion about their founding motivations, their source of sustainable purpose, how sustainable purpose benefits their business, what their view on sustainability is, what they criticise about today’s business world, and what the characteristics of themselves and their business are. Summary of interpretation. The collected data suggests that sustainable purpose was a reason for entrepreneurs to start a business that positively impacts society and the planet. Impactful life events influenced entrepreneurs to think critically about doing business and contributing to a better world. These impactful life events can be identified as the source of sustainable purpose within entrepreneurs. Lastly, entrepreneurs did identify benefits of having a sustainable purpose.

Online movie distribution has become a common practice after giants such as HBO and Netflix have entered the scene. Despite the new digital technologies, the Danish movie industry are having a hard time benefitting from these. While watching the Danish movie ticket sales decrease, the film industry can observe the increasing number of people staying at home watching Netflix. Therefore, it is essential that the movie industry start looking at their business- and distribution models in order to find out where they can optimize their businesses. By using a qualitative inductive approach, this study explored how the Danish movie industry’s traditional business- and distribution models can be adjusted; in order to meet customer demands and be able to compete with its digital competitors. Focus groups with movie customers as well as interviews with industry experts were conducted. The main results were that the participants preferred watching Danish content at home, because of the lack of special effects; because of the cinema ticket prices; as well as the many different options they have at home. Furthermore, it was found that the film industry has difficulties creating content that is embracing new technologies such as 3D; that they are still focusing on the mass when producing movies; and they are not able to get first-hand data from customers. Based upon these results, new business models and distribution models were created. These implement concepts of how the Danish movie industry can meet the requirements of the audience and be able to compete with its digital competitors. The business models include a varies of factors such as Virtual Reality, 3D, data-driven marketing, audience co-creation, new niche subsidy possibility, crowdfunding, more film club memberships and QR codes. The new flexible distribution model makes it possible for a movie to move into the Video-on-Demand window as soon as the movie stops selling in the cinema. These models propose that by implementing these concepts in their business models, the film industry can attract more customers to Danish movies as well as move toward a digital transformation, letting them benefit from the new technologies and be able to compete with its digital competitors. Thereby this study contributes with the first steps for the Danish movie industry to go through a digital transformation.

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The world is facing the challenge of transforming from fossil fuel dependant to a zero-emission econ-omy. This results in multi-fold mineral requirements for technologies such as wind turbines, solar pan-els, and electric vehicles; an exorbitant amount that cannot be fulfilled by recycling alone. In Europe, this challenge is accelerated more by the current Russian conflict in Ukraine and the understanding that not only do we need to decarbonise the European economy, but also become independent from Russian energy and minerals. This transition requires many raw materials and the faster the transition occurs; the more minerals are required to be mined for these important technologies. Before mining can occur, mineral deposits must be discovered during the process of exploration. The success rate of exploration is less than 1 mine from 1000 exploration projects and projects can take decades to convert from discovery to producing mine. On top of this, we are currently searching for lower-grade deposits that are more difficult to find and technically complicated to extract. All this at a time, when environmental legislation is becoming more strict, there’s a requirement for decarbonisation in the mining industry, and the social license to operate is more difficult to obtain. This seemingly impossible task brings into question the efficiency of the business model of exploration companies to determine whether business model innovation can help achieve a more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable industry. This study analyses companies working in lithium exploration, as lithium is a material that is re-quired in significant amounts for the green energy transition. The number of companies operating in this sector has increased significantly in the past few years. Through qualitative content analysis using web content, a cross sectional study of 55 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange was com-pleted to identify themes relating to the business models of each company. Eight overlapping innova-tion categories were identified in 29 of the companies including Environment, Social, Economic, Cir-cular, Collaborative, Lean, Technology and Value Chain innovation.

Background: Digital transformation is an important step in businesses’ quest for environmental sustainability, that changes their business models to create, deliver, and capture value from the use of digital technologies. Another field of research that concerns transformations, is research on socio-technical systems. It explains the adoption of new technologies, by incorporating the social context in which transitions happen. An industry that has been notoriously blamed for being conservative and having sustainability concerns, is the construction industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to contribute to socio-technical systems theory, by investigating how interactions in the socio-technical regime can help digitally transform established construction companies and make them more environmentally sustainable. Method: A qualitative case study was performed around Smart Built Environment, a strategic innovation program. From the program, nine reports were examined, and four employees were interviewed. Furthermore, three interviews were conducted with employees of three large construction companies, which were part of Smart Built Environment’s projects. The reports and interviews were used to develop a theoretical framework, which was constructed from existing literature on socio-technical systems, business models, and digital transformation. Conclusion: The results show that culture and habits, and policy and regulations in the regimes have the greatest influence on the digital transformation of construction companies. This is because they influence the relationships between the construction companies and other actors in the construction value chain. Changes to business models that were identified to facilitate the digital transformation were long-term collaborations, product-based development, co-creation, and using digital technologies as a use case for sustainability.

Purpose: This thesis aims to contribute to the literature on how the value chain for electronic components can be leveraged to obtain circular business models (CBM). By implementing activities in the value chain, circular economy (CE) can be enhanced and a circular value chain obtained. The purpose lies in mapping out activities in the value chain of electronic components and existing barriers to acknowledge where circularity can be increased by CE strategies. Based on this observation, the future path towards CBM will be facilitated. This thesis aims to answer the following research questions: What are the main barriers for a circular value chain in electronic components? and How can the transformation towards a CBM for electronic components be facilitated by a circular value chain?  Method: A qualitative case study has been carried out at Volvo CE. The study is of an abductive approach, where previous theories on CE strategies and value chains were utilised to understand how the transformation towards a CBM can be applied for electronic components. A literature review of the key concepts was conducted and primary data was collected through interviews and one focus group for validation. The data has been analysed through the use of a thematic analysis. Findings: Findings suggest that four areas are of high importance in a circular value chain for electronic components: management, technology department, suppliers relations and aftermarket. The main barriers hindering CE are insufficient objectives, inadequate external value chain integration, limited education, and inertia in technological development. Findings show that the barriers can be mitigated through enhancing CE in the following activities: strategy and organisational vision; cooperation and partners; education and qualifications; innovation and technical development. The result presents how the circular value chain is interconnected with a CBM, visualising how the key activities will facilitate the transformation towards a CBM.  Theoretical contributions & managerial implications: This thesis contributes to the scarcity of literature on value chains in electronic components and adds to research on the connection between value chains and circular business models. The thesis can act as guidance for managers when making the transformation towards a CBM, by highlighting how CE activities can be applied for a more circular value chain.  Limitations and future research: This is a single case study, making the study limited in how applicable the findings are to other industries and countries. Future studies can validate the result by examining value chains in similar companies, to improve the generalisability of our result. This thesis is limited to investigating the value chain from a strategic perspective and we acknowledge that a mapping of the operational value chain can be a matter for future research. We focus on collaboration, but operations that enhance CE in daily activities in production of electronic components are yet to be investigated.

As more companies in the resource-intensive fashion industry start their transition journeys towards circular business models (CBMs), driven by social and regulatory pressures, understanding how companies navigate this transformative process is crucial. This thesis contributes to prevailing research by analysing the challenges faced by linear companies in the fashion industry when adopting more circular models through various initiatives, dividing them by the CBM they apply, and considering their corresponding solutions to these challenges. By interviewing nine companies and four industry experts, we investigated the CBMs: product life extension, circular supplies, resource recovery, and product-as-a-service. Our findings indicate some common challenges include uncertain market demands, high costs and complex logistics, which caused profitability concerns and impeded companies’ transitions. Meanwhile, some challenges were CBM or company-specific. Companies employing circular supplies and resource recovery models faced cost considerations related to material price and availability, while product life extension models struggled with material access and limitations within the organisation or network. Significant market challenges were observed for the product-as-a-service model. To cope with these challenges, companies maintained small-scale CBMs and/or gradually scaled them based on changing circumstances or built collaborative networks within the value chain. Strengthening internal human capital was another coping strategy.

This thesis combines technological innovation systems with business models in a qualitative case study regarding charging point operators for heavy battery electric vehicles in south Sweden. The heavy battery electric vehicle market is still in early development in Sweden, and the development of public charging stations for heavy battery electric vehicles is low. The case study is developed from several qualitative interviews with relevant actors regarding the system for heavy battery electric vehicle charging stations. The case study delivers an empirical understanding of the heavy battery electric vehicles market system in south Sweden through a technological innovation system, as well as developing the technological innovation system literature to give regulatory and direct recommendations to the actor in focus. These recommendations were based on barriers for charging point operator business models, where the recommendations to charging point operators are on components to business models that can mitigate these barriers. The regulatory recommendations provided are more traditional to the technological innovation system literature. The combination of the technological innovation system and business model literature has also provided the ability to give a more in-depth analysis of business models for actors in new emerging markets.