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Digital Platforms for Circular Business Model Innovation - A Case Study to Tackle Food Waste

Paola De Bernardi, Alberto Bertello and Canio Forliano

Current food systems require an unsustainable utilisation of environments and natural resources. Indeed, they are mainly based on an intensive use of rich soils and freshwater, produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, and are contributing to global biodiversity losses (Steffen et al., 2015; Whitmee et al., 2015). These factors have led to a sound increase in humanity’s environmental footprint to such an extent that it estimated that nowadays humans need the resources of 1.75 Earths, with EU residents requiring 2.8 Earths (Global Footprint Network, 2019). Unfortunately, the stable growth of the global poplation will exacerbate this trend over the years. The current population is estimated at 7.7 billion people, and, according to the United Nations, it will reach 9.7 billion people in 2050 (United Nations, 2019). Most of this growth is projected to take place in advanced economies and, in particular, in cities, in which 70% of the world population is expected to establish itself by 2050. Therefore, actual food production and consumption systems will be further challenged by the urbanisation processes, requiring an increase in the food demand (Alexandratos & Bruinsma, 2012; Springmann et al., 2018; Tilman et al., 2011). Despite those challenges posed to current food systems, according to recent data released by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, about onethird of all food produced globally is wasted (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2019). So, if food waste were a country, it would be the third in the world for what regards greenhouse gas emissions (FAO, 2017; Gustavsson et al., 2011). As a consequence, food waste results in environmental and societal damages, as well as economic losses for all the actors involved along with the food systems. Interestingly, these three aspects are the three components of the sustainability paradigm (i.e., social, environmental, and economic). The most significant part of food waste is generated in the late stages of the food supply chain, or it has a domestic origin (Stenmarck et al., 2016). Although, in general, consumers do not cause food waste deliberately and consider food waste as a negative behaviour (Rohm et al., 2017; Van Geffen et al., 2020), changing this behaviour represents a tough mission (Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2015; Farr-Wharton et al., 2014). In this, digital platforms can constitute a proper solution since they can match food provision and demand, enabling transparent transactions between consumers and retailers and giving full information about food whilst guaranteeing its security (De Bernardi, Bertello, et al., 2019). However, the technology per se is not able to vehicle value to consumers (Chesbrough, 2010, p. 355). Companies need to capture that value and deliver it by incorporating it in their business model (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002; Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010; Teece, 2010; Zott & Amit, 2010). By leveraging new technologies to shape their business model and contribute addressing the sustainability paradigm, companies give birth to what is called a sustainable business model (Baima et al., 2020; Schaltegger et al., 2012; Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008; Yang et al., 2017). So, a sustainable business model can be defined as a business model able to give companies a great competitive advantage, creating higher value for customers, while enabling companies to achieve the sustainable development of themselves and the whole society (Lüdeke-Freund, 2010). In this sense, a sustainable business model incorporates the three “P”s of the famous triple bottom line approach proposed by Elkington in 1994 (Elkington, 2018): profits, people, planet. In other words, this approach suggests that “the overall performance of a company should be measured based on its combined contribution to economic prosperity, environmental quality and social capital” (European Commission, 2001, p. 26). In recent years, the presence of enabling technologies and a shift in the attitude of companies and consumers towards addressing sustainability and face wicked problems have led to a gradual shift from the “makeuse-dispose” paradigm of current linear economies to circular economy practices (Stahel, 2016). Some studies have started investigating circular business models (Bocken et al., 2014; Geissdoerfer et al., 2018; Linder & Williander, 2017; Pieroni et al., 2019) but the management literature is still scant in this regard, especially for what concerns the food sector (Galati et al., 2018; Pohlmann et al., 2019; Zucchella & Previtali, 2019). So, this chapter aims to investigate how a digital platform can reduce the food waste generated in the late stages of the food supply chain by developing a circular business model which connect retailers and end-users. Digital Platforms for Circular Business To tackle this issue, the case study methodology has been applied for exploring a digital-platform-based food start-up that has been able to build a circular business model for addressing the food waste problem. By doing so, the authors have been able to present a novel framework for investigating the circularity paradigm in innovative business models for sustainability.

Keywords : circular business model, circularity paradigm, food waste and loss
Sfide collegate Circular Food System
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