How can mandatory repair scores foster repair activity-based circular business models?

Joël Ntsondé^1,3*, Marcus Bergmann², Chloé Steux³, Helen Micheaux^4,3, Rémi Beulque^5,3

¹ISTEC Business School; ²ECSP Business School; ³Mines Paris – Université PSL; ⁴AgroParisTech – Université Paris Saclay; ⁵ISC Paris

*[email protected]

Abstract

An increasing number of scholars consider that organizations should develop sufficiency-based circular business models to slow down material resources consumption (Aggeri et al., 2023; Jungell-Michelsson and Heikkurinen, 2022; Niessen and Bocken, 2021). Some authors consider that repair is one of the possible strategies to advance sufficiency in business practices (Niessen and Bocken, 2021). On the other hand, an increasing number of scholars has been recently trying to understand how public policy instruments can impact circular business models (Wasserbaur et al., 2022; Nußholz et al., 2019), but few of them have been investigating sufficiency-based business models. As a result, so far there is still little literature about the case of repair activity-based circular business models. Consequently, in this paper, the authors aim at understanding how public policy instruments can impact repair activity-based circular business models. To answer this question, we have decided to study a recent key public instrument, the first mandatory repairability index worldwide, which entered into force in France early 2021 as part of the law against waste and for a circular economy (AGEC) ^[1]. Displayed as a score from 1 to 10, this index informs consumers about the ease with which a product can be repaired. We carried out a qualitative research process based on 31 interviews, 3 workshops and secondary data. Through this study, we show the processes through which a public policy instrument as the repairability score can produce effects in order to foster repairability and repair activity-based circular business models.

Keywords

Sufficiency, circular business models, repair, public policy, instrument

References

Aggeri, F., Beulque, R., & Micheaux, H. (2023). L’économie circulaire. La Découverte, Paris, collection « Repères ».

Bocken, NMP, de Pauw, I, Bakker, C, van der Grinten, B (2016). Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering 33(5), 308–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2016.1172124.

Jungell-Michelsson, J. & Heikkurinen, P. (2022) Sufficiency: A systematic literature review, Ecological Economics, Volume 195, 107380.

Niessen, L., and Bocken N. (2021) How can businesses drive sufficiency? The business for sufficiency framework. Sustainable Production and Consumption, Volume 28, Pages 1090-1103.

Nußholz, J. L., Rasmussen, F. N., & Milios, L. (2019). Circular building materials: Carbon saving potential and the role of business model innovation and public policy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 141, 308-316.

Wasserbaur, R., Sakao, T., & Milios, L. (2022). Interactions of governmental policies and business models for a circular economy: A systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 337.