BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

The role of cognitive frames towards circular economy practices in SMEs

Filippo Corsini, Natalia Marzia Gusmerotti, Francesco Testa, Alessandra Borghini

Objectives. The development of an integrative cognitive framework in managers in which environmental and economic views are strictly enwind is crucial for supporting the transition towards a more circular economy. The paper explores the drivers for developing such integrative view in managers of SMEs operating in the hospitality sectors.

Methodology. The research is grounded on original data collected by a survey 252 Italian SMEs operating in the hospitality sector. Adopting a structural equation model, we tested drivers that can contribute to create respectively an environmental and economic logic in managers, whether the co-presence of these logics is able to generate an integrative view and, as a consequence, influence of such view on the adoption of pro-environmental practices.

Findings. The results confirm environmental concern being a driver of environmental logic, the importance of environmental logic and the economic one as determinants of the integrative view and the importance of such view in adopting of pro-environmental practices.

Research limits. The study is focused on a specific geographical context. The number of drivers of environmental internalization could be expanded.

Practical implications. The study contributes to the steam of research on sustainability among SMEs by stressing how intangible factors are crucial for reaching environmental embeddedness.

Originality of the study. Understanding how organization are able to manage potential competing logics in an integrative cognitive framework is still unexplored, mainly in the Hospitality sectors. In such sectors finding an equilibrium between economic and environmental need is crucial for really embracing environmental sustainability.

#Circular Economy #cognitive frames #hospitality sector #pro-environmental practices #SME