Scaling upcycling business models in cross-sector urban value networks

New municipal infrastructures with unusual public-private collaborations have emerged across Dutch cities to tackle growing urban waste streams. Municipalities and businesses facilitate access to discarded resources to local entrepreneurs, citizens and social institutions engaged in urban upcycling. A wide range of urban upcycling initiatives have emerged across multiple supply chains, creating unusual value networks based on closed urban loops in open cycles. However, recent studies show that upcycling entrepreneurs in these cross-sectoral urban value networks face various challenges to develop promising activities towards scalable business models. Important barriers identified include the scarcity of data, capacity and/or competences to manage extreme varieties in quantity and quality of resources across multiple supply chains. While frameworks for circular supply chain management and circular business model innovation exist in literature, scaling-up urban upcycling business models in circular supply chains remains an understudied topic. Therefore, this qualitative empirical research investigates common approaches used by actors in urban upcycling engaged in developing and scaling upcycling business models in urban value networks and across multiple supply chains. The study aims to understand whether available frameworks in state-of-the-art literature resonate with the practices and challenges faced by urban entrepreneurs developing upcycling initiatives towards scalable business model manifestations. The research method consists of three steps. First, scaling processes in urban upcycling are described based on narrative analysis of empirical data. Second, key elements in the scaling process, such as options, criteria and decisions are summarized and mapped through deductive coding. Third, and finally, empirical data is compared with existing frameworks from literature on circular supply chains, circular business model innovation and scaling circular business models. Primary empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with six experts who are engaged in scaling business model manifestations and/or orchestrating urban upcycling value networks. Secondary data shared by interviewees and from public archives is used for data triangulation. Expected results include a conceptual framework for scaling urban upcycling business model manifestations in cross-sector value networks, and an overview of important mechanisms and key elements. Preliminary results show the importance of a strategic portfolio-based view on business model innovation for urban upcycling and an integrated value network perspective on strategic, tactical and operational collaboration between collaborating urban upcycling business model manifestations across multiple supply chains. The results can be used by researchers and practitioners to study and further develop frameworks, approaches and processes for post-pilot scale up of urban upcycling business model manifestations in cross-sector value networks.