Transformations  in
Business & Economics

IMPROVING BUSINESS MODELS FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR CIRCULAR FASHION⁵
Mihaela Herciu, Claudia Ogrean, Diana Mihaiu, Radu Serban, Kamer Ainur Aivaz, Mihai Tichindelean

ABSTRACT: Nowadays companies are increasingly aware of the necessity of rethinking/transforming their business models to properly address the challenges of the circular economy. The circular economy can drive and support the development of new and innovative business models that consider the environment, community, or society as equally important stakeholders as the classical ones. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the existing conceptual framework of the circular economy by appealing to the characteristics of ReSOLVE, 9R frameworks, and circular business model to develop a framework for the circular fashion based on replication logic. For measuring the level of circularity in fashion industry environmental, pillar of ESG score, developed by Refinitiv Thomson Reuters, was used. The findings allow us to identify five phases for circular fashion transformation process and to reveal some business strategies for circularity. The results also show that the synergy of triptych supplier-producer-consumer is crucial for closing the loop.

KEYWORDS:  circular economy; circular business models; circular fashion; ESG, Environmental Pillar

JEL classification:  L21, L25, M10.

⁵Acknowledgments:  This project is funded by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization through Program 1 - Development of the national research-development system, Subprogram 1.2 -Institutional performance- Projects to finance excellence in RDI, Contract no. 28PFE / 30.12.2021.