Reframing Circular Transitions

Small-Business Agency and Ecosystem Dynamics
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-34244-7
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 226 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics

Small firms drive circular economy transitions, yet the literature treats them as a single category — SMEs — addressed by the same instruments and policies. This book argues against that homogenisation. Drawing on empirical and conceptual contributions, the chapters demonstrate that entrepreneurial agency and ecosystem structure continuously reshape one another. Owner–manager centrality functions simultaneously as capability and liability. Ecosystem embeddedness provides resource access while generating structural vulnerability. Unidirectional causal models cannot capture these dynamics. The volume advances a theoretically grounded account of co-constitution — the bidirectional feedback through which small firms navigate circular transitions. It offers an analytical framework, policy implications for meso-level intervention, and a research agenda centred on three core tensions: capability versus liability, access versus vulnerability, and unidirectional causality versus bidirectional co-constitution.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ahmadov, Tarlan

Durst, Susanne

Titko, Jelena

Leitão, João

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensführung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Forschung & Entwicklung (F&E), Innovation

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introducing Small-Business Agency and Ecosystem Dynamics.- Small Enterprises and the Circular Economy: Evidence-Based Transition Logics from a Bibliometric Review.- Circular Transitions in Small Firms: Business Model Innovation for Resource Efficiency and Carbon-Smart Growth.- Green Entrepreneurship and Digital Circularity: A Micro–Meso Framework of Entrepreneurial Intention Formation through Eco-Circularity Vlogs.- Meso-Level Ecosystem Relationships and Circular Economy Practices in Small Social Enterprises: Evidence from Latvia.- AI as an Enabler of Micro–Meso Dynamics in Circular Economy Transitions: A Two- Level Integrative Framework for Small Enterprises.- Build or Re-Build Small and Medium Enterprises: Industrial Sustainability and Digital Traceability of Circular Economy Driven Triadic Archetype.- Turning Scrap into Value: Entrepreneurial Dynamics and Networked Circular Practices in Indonesia’s Small-Scale Metal Scrap Businesses.- Systematically Mapping the Role of Small Luxury Businesses in the Circular Economy Transition.- System Dynamics Perspectives on Small-Firm Circular Economy Transitions: Entrepreneurial Dynamics and Ecosystem Navigation.- Co-Constituting Circularity: Entrepreneurial Agency and Ecosystem Structure in Small-Firm Transitions.

Über Autor(innen)

Tarlan Ahmadov is a researcher affiliated with the Society for Inclusive and Collaborative Entrepreneurship (S4ICE) in Stuttgart, Germany and a researcher at the NECE – Research Centre for Business Sciences, Covilhã, Portugal. His research specialises in circular economy transitions in small and medium-sized enterprises, stakeholder dynamics, and inclusive entrepreneurship models. He has published extensively on SME transitions to circular economy practices and conducted fieldwork across Europe, Asia, and Latin American contexts. His current research agenda investigates how small, informal, and marginalised entrepreneurs contribute to circular economy outcomes in resource-constrained settings.

Susanne Durst is a Full Professor at the Institute for Knowledge and Innovation Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA) of Bangkok University and a Visiting Professor at the Department of Business and Economic of Reykjavik University. Her research interests include responsible knowledge (risk) management, responsible digital transformation, and sustainable business development in the context of smaller entrepreneurial organizations. Her work has been published widely in international peer-reviewed journals and recognised through various awards, including the Emerald Literati Award “Outstanding Paper“ in 2020 and 2023. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Bottom Line and an Editor of Knowledge Management Research and Practice.

Jelena Titko is a Professor, a Leading researcher and a Vice-Rector for Science and International Cooperation at the EKA University of Applied Sciences (Latvia). Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, competencies, digital transformation, and sustainability, contributing to multiple EU-funded projects, including Erasmus+ and EIT HEI initiatives. She is a coordinator of the international research group “Sustainable Development and Circular Economy” and an author of more than 100 scientific papers in the field of sustainability, business, management, and education. She serves as an Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journals “Economics and Culture” and “Sustainability, Social Innovations and Digital Transformation”.

João Leitão is Vice-Rector and associate professor (with habilitation) of economics at the UBI – University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal and a researcher at the NECE – Research Centre for Business Sciences. He is an external researcher at the CEGIST – Centre for Management Studies of the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), and an associate researcher of the ICS – Instituto de Ciências Sociais, University of Lisbon. He is a visiting professor at the University of Bergamo, Italy. He was a visiting scholar at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität and an external research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany.