Circular business model innovation and cognitive framing: Addressing the “missing micro”

Circular business model innovation is an important driver for the implementation of circular economy across industries and has become one of the central research debates in recent years. However, while macro-, meso-, and organizational level factors influencing circular business model innovation have attracted vast research interest, less is known about micro-, individual level factors. The question driving this paper is how do individuals' cognitive frames of sustainability influence their conceptualization of new circular business models? We argue that the notion of cognitive frames can help to address the problem of how individuals respond to new concepts with which they are unfamiliar, such as circular business models. The study is based on a multi-stakeholder project Alpha (anonymized), which involved circular business model innovation for resource recovery from waste. Findings suggest that cognitive frames are of primary importance for sensemaking of circular business models and can influence sustainability aspects considered for value creation, value delivery, and value capture.