Financial Resources for the Circular Economy: A Perspective from Businesses

Abstract

In recent years, a number of case studies of the circular economy in business have been analysed by academics. However, some areas of research are little explored at the micro level, such as the study of the characteristics of the financial resources applied to investments to introduce circular activities in businesses. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to define the resources applied to circular activities by firms. To describe the influence of financial resources on achieving a more advanced circular economy in business is also an objective of this paper. Using a sample of Spanish companies, we applied a partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to enhance the knowledge about financial resource management in the framework of the resource-based view. We find that availability of funds, quality of the firm’s own financial resources and public subsidies have a positive effect in stimulating the implementation of circular economy initiatives in businesses.