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Environment, Development and Sustainability

A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development

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Environment, Development and Sustainability - Call for Papers

Circular Business Models and Sustainability Strategies

The transition to a markedly more circular and resource-efficient economy requires a more widespread penetration of circular business models, in which environmental pressures associated with economic production and consumption are significantly reduced. The notion of circular economy has gained prominence on policymakers’ agendas worldwide, resulting, for example, in the European Circular Economic package. The concept has also become an important field of academic research, with a considerable increase in articles and journals covering this topic in the last decade. However, most of them have an economic approach purely (i.e., in countries). Thus, they have forgotten the role business and society play in the circular economy, as agents of change of current economic models based on over-consumption mainly.

By nature, a circular economy encompasses multiple systems at local, regional, and national levels through a holistic and systemically sustainable long-term approach. In the literature on sustainable business models, value capture is extended from economic value to include also social and environmental values. The main challenges related to value creation and value capture are designing circular business models to bring the firm economic value and environmental and social benefits. Moving from a linear to a circular economy requires innovative business models design, new visions and new forms of organization and sustainable strategies.  However, the fact is that the idea of a circular economy that offers new ways to create more sustainable economic growth models is taking shape all over the world.

This Special Issue particularly welcomes papers that highlight recent developments and methodological contributions of circular business models and sustainability strategies. It aims to contribute to a greater understanding and development of sustainable solutions on how to manage and lead a sustainable business by incorporating circular economy principles in its strategies to support sustainable growth.


We welcome submissions from various knowledge areas; however, we are interested in publishing empirical contributions mainly. In this sense, we offer them as examples of questions suitable for the special issue:

Facing the challenges of the transition to a circular economy, how should companies and countries adapt their business models to be more sustainable?How can governments and other stakeholders assist the circular economy in improving both countries and regions’ sustainable development and corporate sustainability? What environmental policies, practices and models should promote?What strategies should circular economy companies adopt to mitigate the negative impacts on the environment and society? What variables/dimensions can explain circular business models, in other words, sustainable firms?How to implement and evaluate government policies and programs that affect the development of circular business models?How to increase circular business models and sustainability strategies?What mechanisms to develop to neutralize or reduce the negative environmental effects of linear economy models? What are the product design strategies and business models for companies that want to move to a circular economy model?What value chains play a role in the circular economy and firm sustainability?What role customers and society play in transforming over consumption-based business models in the circular economy- business model?


Guest Editors

Jesús Peña-Vinces, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Email: jesuspvinces@us.es (this opens in a new tab)

João J. Ferreira, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
Email: jjmf@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)

Marina Dabić, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia, & Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom,
Emails: mdabic@net.efzg.hr (this opens in a new tab); marina.dabic@ntu.ac.uk

Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Department of Management (Departamento de Organización y Gerencia), Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia
Email: mgonza40@eafit.edu.co (this opens in a new tab)


Deadline for submission: 20 December 2022


Note for potential contributors:

Before submitting your manuscript for evaluation via ENVI’s Editorial Manager, please, firstly, ask for appropriateness (pre-submission) either Prof Jesús Peña-Vinces (jesuspvinces@us.es (this opens in a new tab)) or Prof João J. Ferreira (jjmf@ubi.pt (this opens in a new tab)).


Full description of this Special Issue (this opens in a new tab) 


How to submit?

Submit your article via Editorial Manager (this opens in a new tab) or by clicking on the Submit manuscript button on the home page of Environment, Development and Sustainability (this opens in a new tab). Please check the Instructions for authors (this opens in a new tab) before submitting and select "S.I.: Circular Business Models and Sustainability Strategies” as Article type. In general, manuscripts should be submitted in Word (this opens in a new tab) and not exceed 7000 words (this opens in a new tab).

Environment, Development and Sustainability is a hybrid open access journal. Authors can opt to make their research open access (OA) with Open Choice if they wish. More information can be found here (this opens in a new tab). Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services (this opens in a new tab) for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.


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