Follow what each partner contributes
A circular business depends on exchanges between organizations. A manufacturer may contribute knowledge that helps a supplier change its materials. A service provider may connect an owner with the next user of a product. Mapping these contributions reveals how the arrangement works and what each participant receives in return.
Different ways to organize the same ambition
The study identifies recurring arrangements for developing circular products, making better use of existing resources, and recovering products or materials after use. The coordinating role can sit with a producer, a service provider, or a recovery specialist. One useful distinction is whether an intermediary receives and redistributes products itself or helps participants exchange them directly.
Two ways to pass a product on
A service can handle the goods itself or connect the people who exchange them.
Through an intermediary
The service receives and passes on the goods.
Direct exchange
Matching service connects both sides
The service arranges the match; goods move directly between participants.
Giving office furniture another use
Illustrative scenario: a firm has desks left over after an office move. It could hand them to a resale service that checks their condition, stores them, and finds another buyer. Alternatively, a platform could connect the firm directly with an organization that needs them.
Both arrangements aim to keep the desks in use, but they need different services. In the first, the intermediary handles the goods. In the second, the two organizations still need to agree on pickup and condition, while the platform provides the match. A useful design question is which work each participant is willing and able to take on.
Start with the exchanges
Choose a circular offering and map who supplies the products, who performs the supporting work, and what each participant gains. Then check whether any contribution lacks a willing provider. This gives partners a practical starting point for discussing their arrangement; it does not establish that the offering will be profitable or reduce environmental impacts.
About the study
Research approach
We analyzed publicly documented circular-economy initiatives, drawing primarily on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s case library. We screened 148 descriptions and retained 48 that fit the ecosystem definition, provided enough detail about actors and their exchanges, were available in English, and had been published after 2018. This is a study of existing case descriptions, not an interview study or a forecast.
Modeling and comparison
For each case, we used e³-value modeling to represent participants and the tangible or intangible resources exchanged between them. The models describe value relationships rather than the timing of individual process steps. We coded actor roles and exchanged resources, compared the cases, and developed eight recurring constellations. Team discussions helped resolve differences in the models. We then grouped the constellations by their main circular purpose: innovation, more efficient resource use, or recovery after use.
Evaluation and revision
Ten researchers and circular-economy experts applied the framework to three additional cases and rated its usefulness, clarity, and completeness. Their feedback supported its usefulness but also exposed confusing terminology and diagrams. The paper reports inter-coder reliability of 57%, so assigning a case to a constellation was not straightforward. We revised the explanations and visuals in response. This evaluation concerns how people understand and use the framework, not the business or environmental performance of the cases.
What the findings support
The constellations offer a vocabulary for comparing partnerships and considering alternative roles. The sample relies heavily on one public case library and cannot represent every sector or emerging practice. The study does not establish which arrangement performs best, measure its environmental benefits, or explain how relationships change over time. The office-furniture scenario above is an illustration, not a case studied in the paper.