Towards Circular Business Models: A systematic literature review on classification frameworks and archetypes

Since many years, companies are trying to cope with impressive technological growth rates, severe environmental issues and even more restrictive national and international directives. However, innovative Business Models (BMs) and industrial strategies adequate to this new context are still either under development or implementation. To this aim, the article proposes a systematic literature review on existing Circular Business Models (CBMs) and their classification methods, by selecting the most promising ones. A total amount of 283 articles related with CBMs has been assessed into detail, by identifying: 5 archetypes, 9 classification methods, 5 adoption-oriented challenges, 4 decision-support tools and 3 additional research areas. Key findings demonstrate that: i) Product-Service Systems (PSSs)-oriented and Reuse, Remanufacturing and Recycling (3R)-based CBMs are the most common archetypes, ii) Business Model Canvas is the most diffused classification framework, iii) sustainability and company-based challenges are the most discussed by the experts and iv) sustainability check-oriented is the most common type of decision-support tools. These (and others) results could support both companies, researchers and governments in updating the current knowledge on CBMs and make them adoptable for practitioners from different industrial contexts. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.