The vision of a circular economy (CE) promises both profitability and eco-sustainability to industries, and can, from a material and energy resource flow perspective, be operationalized by combining three business and design strategies: closing loops; narrowing and slowing down resource flows by material recycling, improving resource efficiency; and by extending product life by reuse, upgrades and remanufacturing. These three strategies are straightforward ways for industries to radically reduce their use of virgin resources. From a product design perspective, it is doable. However, from a business perspective, it is no less than a revolution that is asked for, as most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have, over time, designed their organizations for capturing value from selling goods in linear, flow-based business models. This thesis aims to contribute to the discourse about CE by exploring practical routes for operationalizing circular product design in a “stock-based” CBM. The approach is three-fold. Firstly, the role of design as a solution provider for existing business models is explored and illustrated by case studies and interviews from the automotive industry. Secondly, challenges and possibilities for manufacturing firms to embrace all three strategies for circularity are explored. Thirdly, implications for designing products suitable to stock-based CBMs are discussed. In spite of the vast interest in business model innovation, a circular economy, and how to design for a circular economy, there are still many practical, real-life barriers preventing adoption. This is especially true for designing products that combine all three of the circular strategies, and with regard to the risk of premature obsolescence of products owned by an OEM in a stock-based business model. Nevertheless, if products are designed to adapt to future needs and wants, business risks could be reduced. The main findings are that CE practices already have been implemented in some respects in the automotive industry, but those practices result in very low resource productivity. Substantial economic and material values are being lost due to the dominant business and design logic of keeping up resource flows into products sold. The primary challenge for incumbent OEMs is to manage, in parallel, both a process for circular business model innovation and a design process for future adaptable products. / <p>This licentiate studies have been financed by the Swedish EnergyAgency. The Appended Paper I is a part of the research project:Future-adaptivity for more energy-efficient vehicles, a collaborationbetween RISE VIKTORIA and Academy of Design &amp; Crafts,University of Gothenburg.</p>

Mode-och textilbranschen är en resursintensiv bransch som står för en stor del av de globala utsläppen. Den har uppmärksammats av EU som en särskilt betydande bransch som måste genomgå förändringar för att bidra till en hållbar utveckling. Stora företag i mode-och textilbranschen i EU behöver de närmaste åren göra en omställning till cirkulära affärsmodeller för att möta kraven som angetts i EU:s cirkulära mål. Trots detta finns det få studier som undersöker hur långt dessa företag kommit i denna omställning. Sverige och Danmark har antagit mer ambitiösa krav på företags hållbarhetsrapportering än EU-direktivet NFRD anger. I denna studie utförs en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsrapporter från sex mode-och textilföretag på den svenska och danska marknaden. Syftet är att beskriva och analysera hur långt dessa företag kommit i hållbarhetsarbetet och jämföra om det finns skillnader i hur företagen på de olika marknaderna presterar. Resultatet av studiens empiriska analys visar att det finns en homogenitet i hur långt fallföretagen kommit i hållbarhetsarbetet med undantag för ett fallföretag på den danska marknaden. Bortsett från detta undantag har alla företagen satt upp mål för sina koldioxidutsläpp i linje med 1,5-gradersmålet. Cirkulära affärsmodeller pilot-testas i dessa företag. Alla studiens företag placeras i nivån av hållbarhet business-as-usual utifrån den information de presenterat i sina hållbarhetsrapporter. Det kan konstateras att alla företag utom ett uppfyller flera subkriterier både i business sustainability 1, 2 och 3. Fallföretagen och de koncerner-och moderbolag de tillhör har investeringsstilar och ESG-betyg som stärker det empiriska resultat som framkommit. / The fashion and textile industry is a resource-intensive industry that accounts for a large part of global emissions. It has been recognized by the EU as a particularly significant industry that must undergo changes in order to contribute to a sustainable development. In the coming years, large companies in the fashion and textile industry in the EU need to make a transition to circular business models to meet the requirements stated in the EU's circular goals. Despite this, there are few studies that examine how far these companies have come in this transition. Sweden and Denmark have adopted more ambitious requirements for corporate sustainability reporting than the EU directive NFRD specifies. In this study, a qualitative content analysis of sustainability reports from six fashion and textile companies in the Swedish and Danish markets is carried out. The purpose is to describe and analyze how far these companies have come towards becoming sustainable businesses and compare whether there are differences in how the companies in the various markets perform. The result of the study's empirical analysis shows that there is a homogeneity in how far the case companies have come towards becoming sustainable businesses, except for one case company in the Danish market. Apart from this exception, all the companies have set targets for their carbon dioxide emissions in line with the 1.5-degree target. Circular business models are tested in the companies. All the companies in the study are placed in the level of sustainability business-as-usual based on the information they presented in their sustainability reports. It can be stated that all but one company meets several sub-criteria both in business sustainability 1, 2 and 3. The case companies and the groups and parent companies they belong to have investment styles and ESG ratings that strengthen the empirical results that emerged.

Die Industrie 4.0 führt aktuell zu revolutionären Veränderungen und Herausforderungen im Industriesektor, auf die Unternehmen mit neuen Geschäftsmodellen reagieren müssen. Die Masterarbeit gibt mit Hilfe einer Status-Quo Analyse eine Bestandsaufnahme über die aktuellen digitalen Geschäftsmodelle deutscher Industrieunternehmen. Die Erkenntnisse wurden auf Basis von 71 \"Mini-Cases\" erhoben. Dabei wurden Anbieter, sowie Anwender von Industrie 4.0 Technologien untersucht und in neun Muster kategorisiert. Auf Grundlage dieser Ergebnisse wurde ein inkrementeller Transformationsprozess konzipiert, der zur Entwicklung von digitalen Geschäftsmodellen in der Industrie 4.0 genutzt werden kann.

De nos jours, de multiples travaux de recherches s’intéressent au secteur du logiciel libre (ou Open Source). Ceux-ci ont pour la plus part traité la question de la motivation des développeurs dans la dynamique de création collective de la valeur. Notre travail vient à la suite de la forte industrialisation de cette activité, qui attire des acteurs guidés principalement par la perspective de la captation de valeur économique, dans un contexte de faible degré d’appropriation de valeur puisque les droits de propriété sont proscrits pour les logiciels Open Source. Cette situation bouscule les principes de base et l’identité des projets Open Source remettant ainsi en cause la pérennité des Business Models (BM).Notre étude met en lumière le BM, non pas comme un outil, mais comme un ensemble de phases au cours desquelles la pérennité doit être analysée et anticipée. Nous avons aussi mis en avant la nécessité d’analyser la pérennité dans l’Open Source sur quatre dimensions ou niveaux (pérennité des logiciels, pérennité des entreprises éditrices de logiciel open source, pérennité des communautés Open Source et pérennité des données). Par la suite, grâce à notre démarche qualitative basée sur trois études de cas et sur 52 entretiens semi-directifs, nous avons pu identifier des points de tension et mis en évidence leurs impacts sur la pérennité des BM Open Source lors des phases de création, de captation et de partage de la valeur. C’est ainsi qu’il est ressorti comme risques, le détournement de la valeur et le comportement de free rider développé par les acteurs pour tenter de renforcer l’appropriabilité de la valeur. Cela passe d’une part par les tentatives de rétention de connaissances et d’autre part, par la nécessité de maintenir en interne les capacités intellectuelles détenues principalement par les développeurs. Cela pose les dilemmes entre ouverture/fermeture et rétention/diffusion. Nous exposons pour finir dans ce travail des éléments qui ressortent comme étant déterminants pour la pérennité des BM Open Source. / Nowadays, several research works are interested in the free software industry (or Open Source). Most of them have addressed the issue of developers’ motivation in a dynamic collective creation of value. Our work therefore comes as a result of the heavy industrialization of this activity, which attracts software developers primarily guided by the desire of creating economic value, in a context of low levels of ownership value, as property rights are prohibited for Open Source software. This disrupts the basic principles and identity of Open Source projects and therefore questions the sustainability of business models (BM).Our study highlights the BM, not as a tool, but as a series of steps in which sustainability should be analyzed and anticipated. We’ve also emphasized on the need to analyze the sustainability in Open Source in four dimensions or levels (the sustainability of open source software, sustainability of companies creating such freeware, Open Source communities and data’ sustainability). Subsequently, through our qualitative approach based on three case studies and 52 semi-structured interviews, we were able to identify some points of tension and highlighted their impact on the sustainability of Open Source BM during their phases of creation, capturing and sharing of value. Thus it has emerged some risks such as, the diversion of value and the free rider behavior developed by actors who try to strengthen appropriateness of value. This requires on one hand some knowledge retention efforts and on the other hand, the need to maintain internal intellectual capacity primarily held by developers. This creates dilemmas between opening and closing; retention and release. Finally we explain in this work element that stands out as critical to the sustainability of Open Source BM.

Depuis 2014, la Commission Européenne incite les régions de ses états-membres à établir un nouveau type de stratégies de développement territoriales devant les pousser à se spécialiser dans des domaines qui sont ancrés sur leur territoire afin de dégager des avantages concurrentiels originaux et difficilement imitables : les « Stratégies de Recherche et d’Innovation pour la Spécialisation Intelligente » (RIS3). Depuis 2014, les RIS3 conditionnent également l’obtention des fonds FEDER qui servent à financer le développement de ces régions. Mais la principale originalité des RIS3 réside dans le fait que ces processus de sélection et de priorisation des spécialisations qui s’établissent à l’échelle globale des régions selon une dynamique décisionnelle classique qui va « du haut vers le bas » doivent désormais reposer sur des processus d'identification des domaines à fort potentiel qui doivent être menés « du bas vers le haut » via un processus de Découverte Entrepreneuriale (DE) devant permettre à un maximum d’« Entrepreneurs régionaux » (RE) (de toutes tailles, statuts ou secteurs) de participer à la définition des orientations de leur territoire. Cependant, un certain manque de préconisations méthodologiques se fait ressentir pour instrumenter concrètement ces processus au sein des réalités de chaque système d’innovation régional. Cette thèse présente donc deux prototypes logiciels que nous avons développés pour instrumenter ces mécanismes bidirectionnels au sein du système d’innovation de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine : (1) « WeKeyInnovation, une plateforme collaborative qui doit permettre à tous les RE de partager des informations utiles pour innover, mais aussi de poser les bases d’un véritable observatoire dynamique pour aider la puissance publique régionale à identifier en temps réel les pratiques, les besoins et les initiatives à fort potentiel émanant des acteurs de terrain qui évoluent sur le territoire ; (2) « DialoJ », un outil de matching en ligne reposant sur la résolution de questions dialogiques en amont d’évènements afin d’aider les RE qui entendent y participer à expliciter leurs expectatives et à mieux visualiser celles des autres acteurs dans le but de faciliter les processus d’identification et de correspondance avec des partenaires d’affaires potentiels plus adéquats en tant qu’étape préliminaire à toute démarche d’affaires collaborative. / Since 2014 the European Commission enhanced all member-states regions to establish a new type of territorial development strategies which call them to specialize within areas that are really embedded into their territory in order to push them to build a set of original competitive advantages that are impossible or difficult to imitate. Those new strategies are called: “Research and Innovation Strategies for the Smart Specialization” (RIS3). Since 2014, the formulation of a RIS3 strategy also became the obligation that conditions the possibility for regions to access to the European Regional Development Fund which is one of the main financial resources of regions to finance their development. But the main originality of RIS3 is certainly the fact that the classical “top-down” processes of selection and prioritization of the strategic orientations of territories that will be decided by each public government at regional level will also have to be based now on an “Entrepreneurial Discovery” process: a “bottom-up” process of identification of the domains of strong potential for the region which stresses the need to involve all the “regional entrepreneurs” (RE) (of all size, sectors or status) into the design of their territory orientations. However, it seems that there is a lack of practical recommendations to concretely implement those complex mechanism into the very heterogeneous contexts of each regional innovation system of European regions. Thus, this work present two propositions of tools that we developed to instrument those complex processes within the innovation system of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine: (1) “WeKeyInnovation, a collaborative platform to help RE to share information about innovation supports, and to create also the basis of a dynamic observatory at regional level in order to help policymakers in the design of more suitable territorial strategies; (2) “DialoJ”, a matching tool that will allow to all RE to clarify their needs before to participate to any networking events, in oder to help them to identify and to match with more suitable potential partners before to eventually start any collaborative business process with them.

Traditionella affärsmodeller ligger till grund för hur företag gör vinst och levererar kunskap. När samhället blir mer och mer digitaliserat ökar risken för misslyckande när en traditionell affärsmodell används. Ett sätt att minska risken är att transformera affärsmodellen till digital affärsmodell.  Denna studie tar upp förklaringar till vad digitala affärsmodeller, konkurrensfördelar, digitalisering, digitisering och affärsmodeller är. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på vilka realiserade konkurrensfördelar har skapats av digitala affärsmodeller samt hur företagen fick fördelarna. Syftet uppfylldes med hjälp av en systematisk litteraturgenomgång och intervjuer för att kunna påvisa eventuella likheter och skillnader mellan företagen jämfört med tidigare forskning.  För att skapa konkurrensfördelar med digitala affärsmodeller krävs en översyn av prioriteringar. Det gäller för företag med digitala affärsmodeller att leverera kundnytta med digitaliserade lösningar. Företags engagemang i till exempel miljö och dess påverkan på arbetssätt skapar konkurrensfördelar, när det samtidigt kopplas till digitala affärsmodeller. / Traditional business models form the basis for how companies make profit, delivery, and knowledge. This means that the risk of failure increases with traditional business models when society becomes digital. One way to reduce the risk is to transform the business model into a digital business model.  This study addresses explanations of what digital business models, competitive advantages, digitization, digitization, and business models are. The purpose of the study is to find out what realized competitive advantages have been created by digital business models and how the company received the benefits. This was done with interviews and a systematic literature review to be able to demonstrate any similarities and differences between the companies compared with previous research.  Creating competitive advantages with digital business models requires a review of priorities. It applies to companies with digital business models to deliver customer value with digitized solutions. Companies' involvement in, for example, the environment and its impact on working methods creates competitive advantages, when at the same time it is linked to digital business models.

Congestion and pollution are challenges that have started to build pressure on urban cities to introduce more environmental-friendly transportation alternatives. One transport solution that has gained attention in the light of digitalization is a concept called mobility as a service (MaaS) that has the potential to change how people travel today. However, the main issue related to MaaS is that there is no sustainable or long-term business model in place, and it is unclear how value can be created for actors that are considering to integrate themselves to this ecosystem. The purpose of this study is to investigate what the potential opportunities and challenges are from a transport operator’s perspective when considering to integrate their transportation service to MaaS. This study further addresses the key elements that are needed in this service and its system-level enablers, as well as, how transportation operators’ ability and desire differ to influence the development of MaaS. The study is moreover built on a qualitative research approach where actors from both private and public organizations were interviewed. The gathered data was in combination with a literature review and business model theory analyzed to provide an answer to the current opportunities and challenges with MaaS. The results indicate that both public transport and carpools are essential parts to even consider developing MaaS further and to be able to compete with privately owned vehicles. To be able to make MaaS an attractive transportation solution and to be able to develop this service further, thirdparty resellers have to be granted permission by PTA’s to sell their travel tickets, and that carpool cars have to be given a definition to receive parking subsidies. Next, it was concluded that a clearer added value is needed in order for private and public transportation operators to see the actual value that MaaS could potentially offer their businesses and customers. Moreover, both roles and responsibilities have to be determined to make transport operators aware of how an integration of their service into the MaaS ecosystem could affect them. Additionally, transportation operators that are operating within procured public traffic are limited in their ability to influence the development of MaaS, since they do not have the mandate to make that decision. On the contrary, private transport operators do have the ability to affect the development of MaaS and could have the potential to create their own MaaS solution. / Till följd av ökad trafikträngsel och ökade utsläpp inom transportsektorn i storstadsregioner så efterfrågas nya hållbara resealternativ. Ett koncept som kallas mobilitet som tjänst (MaaS) har därför ökat i intresse de senaste åren och tros ha potentialen att förändra människors sätt att resa. En av de stora utmaningarna för MaaS är dock att det ännu inte har presenterats någon hållbar affärsmodell och det är oklart hur värde kan skapas för de aktörer som överväger att integrera sig till detta ekosystem. Därför är syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka möjligheter och hinder som transportoperatörer ser i samband med att integrera sig till ett MaaS koncept. Dessutom undersöks det vilka element som anses vara nödvändiga för att MaaS ska fungera samt hur transportoperatörernas möjlighet och förmåga till att påverka utvecklingen av MaaS skiljer sig. Studien är byggd på en kvalitativ ansats vilket innebär att både offentliga och privata aktörer från transportindustrin intervjuades. En litteraturgranskning och affärsmodellteori användes som utgångspunkt i analysen av det insamlade empiriska underlaget. Resultatet i studien indikerar att kollektivtrafik och bilpooler är nödvändiga element i en MaaS tjänst som måste finnas på plats för att MaaS ska kunna konkurrera med det privata bilägandet. För att fortsätta utveckla Maas måste tredjepartsleverantörer få tillåtelse att sälja kollektivtrafikbiljetter och bilpoolsbilar behöver definieras för att kunna kvalificeras för parkeringssubventioner. Dessutom krävs det att MaaS kan uppvisa ett tydligt värde för privata -och offentliga transportoperatörer och deras kunder. De ingående aktörernas roller och ansvar behöver bestämmas för att på längre sikt förstå hur en integration till MaaS påverkar deras tjänst. Det kunde även konstateras att transportoperatörer som jobbar som underleverantörer inom upphandlad kollektivtrafik är mer begränsade till att påverka utvecklingen av MaaS då de inte innehar mandat för beslutsfattande. De transportoperatörer som jobbar på kommersiell marknadsbasis har däremot inga begränsningar till att påverka utvecklingen av MaaS.

This research paper investigates the need from two different stakeholders, in the purpose to formulate prerequisites for a digital business model that are in line with a digital transformation strategy. The paper contains qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather data. The scope of the research was to create a digital business model with business model innovation with input from two stakeholder and data from customers. To create a basis for the research a literature review was executed on the keywords business models, business model innovation, digital transformation, digital transformation strategy, business process management, stakeholder management, customer relations and transport management. Findings showed one digitized business model and one digitalized business model that fits a digital transformation with cooperation between stakeholders. / I denna uppsats undersöks behovet från två olika intressenter i syfte att formulera förutsättningar för en digital affärsmodell som är i linje med en strategi för digital transformation. Uppsatsen innehåller kvalitativa och kvantitativa forskningsmetoder för att samla in data. Forskningens omfattning var att skapa en digital affärsmodell med affärsmodellinnovation med input från två intressenter och data från kunder. För att skapa en grund för forskningen utfördes en litteraturgenomgång på nyckelorden affärsmodeller, affärsmodellinnovation, digital transformation, digital transformationsstrategi, affärsprocesshantering, intressenthantering, kundrelationer och transporthantering. Diskussionen och slutsats visar en digitaliserad affärsmodell och en digitaliserad affärsmodell som passar en digital omvandling med hjälp av samarbete mellan intressenter.

Denna rapport är en kvalitativ undersökning av cirkulära möbelflöden som verktyg för fördröjd materialanvändning. Dagens konsumtions- och produktionsmönster är inte förenliga med målen hållbar utveckling. Genom att ersätta linjära affärsmodellerna med cirkulära affärsmodeller kan resurseffektivisering och materialbesparing åstadkommas. De har som mål att fördröja eller sluta materialcykeln vilket kräver olika insatser i designfasen som gör produkter lämpliga för återanvändning, materialåtervinning eller förlängd livscykel.  För närvarande pågår ett renoveringsprojekt av en K-märkt byggnad som tillhör CBH-skolan på KTH där även inventarierna kommer rustas upp. Möblerna kommer i första hand renoveras och återbrukas för att bli en del av ett cirkulärt möbelflöde vilket kräver implementering av cirkulära affärsmodeller. I denna studie undersöks hur återbruket av möblerna, specifikt mötesstolar, hanteras på KTH samt vilka hinder som finns i praktiken vid implementering av cirkulära affärsmodeller och återbruk. Studiens övergripande metoder för att besvara frågeställningarna består av litteraturstudier, intervjuer och inventering. Resultaten från dessa har analyserats och utvärderas i förhållande till befintliga cirkulära affärsmodeller.  Utifrån studien har det identifierats att det på KTH främst finns organisatoriska hinder på grund av avsaknaden av centraliserade beslut som främjar cirkulära möbelflöden. Det saknas ett helhetsgrepp som minskar incitamenten att styra mot ett cirkulärt flöde och det blir då enklare att agera efter linjära affärsmodeller. Dagens marknad är i mångt och mycket anpassad efter linjära affärsmodeller och det leder till att verksamheter riskerar att konkurrera ut sig själva i den cirkulära omställningen. Därför krävs en större acceptans för mer cirkulära användningsmönster och starkare incitament att få marknaden att ställa om. / This is a qualitative study about how circular furniture flow works as a tool to slow the use of material resources. Our modern ways of consumption are not aligned with sustainable development. The substitution of linear business models with circular business models can contribute to resource efficiency and material savings. The main goal of circular business models is to either slow or close the material cycle, and products need to be designed for reuse, recycling, or a prolonged life cycle.  There is an ongoing renovation of the listed building used by the school of CBH at KTH. Along with the renovation, the furniture is also being refurbished. The current furniture will primarily be renovated and reused with the goal of creating a circular furniture flow by implementing circular business models. This study examines how the refurbishment of chairs is handled at KTH by observing the main challenges for implementing circular business models. This has been done with the help of literature studies, qualitative interviews, and an inventory of chairs. The results have been analyzed and compared to existing circular business models.  Based on this study, the main challenges are identified as organizational due to the lack of centralized decisions in favor of circular furniture flows. There is a lack of a holistic approach that creates incentives to move the organization in a more circular direction and to obstruct the use of linear business models. The market is mostly adapted for linear business models, and businesses are at the risk of outcompeting themselves by adopting more circular approaches. Circular usage needs to be widely accepted with the help of stronger incentives to move in a more circular direction.

In order to mitigate climate change, human activity needs to be decarbonised through a phase-out of fossil fuels, replaced by renewable energy sources. Here, sustainable business models can play an important role through connecting niche renewable technologies to the wider system and thereby allowing them to diffuse. Alternative business models towards the traditional centralised utility model have emerged, but remain poorly developed, and understood, especially their impact on transition dynamics over time. Therefore, this study combines business model research with the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, in order to investigate how emerging sustainable business models in Germany co-evolve with the country’s energy system over time. The three studied business models are tenant electricity, community microgrid and virtual power plant. To this end, the study applied a qualitative research approach, involving an interview, survey and document review in order assess with which transition pathways, based on the multi-level perspective, the three studied business models share most characteristics with. The results suggest that community microgrid currently follows a substitution pathway, in which old regime structures are replaced over time. The business model of tenant electricity is still stuck in its niche, but under adjusting regulatory structures expected to follow a transformative pathway with minor regime adjustments, while the basic regime architecture remains unchanged. Lastly, virtual power plants as a symbiotic business model shares most characteristics with a reconfiguration pathway, in which it triggers internal change and over time can result in major structural reconfigurations. These results underline that not only the type of employed technology plays a crucial role, but also how it is made available to society in form of business models. Further, the alignment with different transitional pathways provides a more nuanced perspective on how different business model types co-relate and impact transition dynamics and thereby provides a basis for future discussions around how a sustainable energy transition can be steered towards a more democratic and inclusive energy system.