Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore the concepts of customer experience, customer engagement, and customer value in light of a more sustainable and even circular economy. Indeed, the circular economy is increasingly considered as a condition for sustainability (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017), with many organizations pushing for business model innovation to live up to expectations.

To reach the economic, social, cultural and environmental goals of sustainability, though, researchers and practitioners increasingly acknowledge that (circular) business model innovation should be seen as a process of gaining acceptance not only among policy makers and (business) practitioners, but also among the end user—the customer (e.g., Fehrer and Wieland, 2020; Hazée et al. 2017; Vijverman et al. 2019).

Although recent review studies of the customer experience, engagement and value literature recognize the importance of sustainable consumption (e.g., De Keyser et al. 2020; Rasool et al. 2020; Zeithaml et al. 2020), little research attention is dedicated to their link with circular business models. Meanwhile, researchers have called for adopting a customer perspective on circular business models (e.g., Khitous et al. 2020), given the critical role of customers in the ecosystem (Camacho-Otero et al. 2018; Mostaghel and Chirumalla 2021).

Drawing from the circular business model literature (Lacy et al. 2014, McCarthy et al. 2018, Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2019), we identify five types of circular business models:

• circular supplies = business models centered on offering renewable, biodegradable and recyclable inputs;
• resource recovery = business models focused on transforming waste into value through recycling and upcycling;
• product life extension/remanufacturing model = business models aimed at extending the use period of products by maintaining, repairing, and remanufacturing;
• sharing platforms = business models centered around a platform to maximize the utilization of products or services;
• product as a service = business models wherein customers use a product by leasing or paying for use contracts

To connect the literature on the various circular business models with the customer experience, customer engagement, and customer value literature, this Special Issue welcomes conceptual and empirical contributions related (but not limited) to the following themes, and from a variety of disciplines:

• What is a sustainable customer experience?
• What is the impact of various circular business models on the customer experience?
• Under which conditions do customers engage (more or less) with circular business models and co-create value?
• What managerial strategies and processes engage customers in relation to different types of circular business models?
• Under what conditions do interactions with circular business models have negative repercussions for the customer experience?
• Under what conditions do circular business model generate customer value?
• How do customer experiences differ across different types of circular business models?

References

Camacho-Otero, J., Boks, C., & Pettersen I.N. (2018). Consumption in the circular economy: A literature review. Sustainability, 10, 2758

De Keyser, A., Verleye, K., Lemon, K. N., Keiningham, T. L., & Klaus, P. (2020). Moving the Customer Experience Field Forward: Introducing the Touchpoints, Context, Qualities (TCQ) Nomenclature. Journal of Service Research, 23(4), 433-455.

Fehrer, J. A., & Wieland, H. (2020). A systemic logic for circular business models. Journal of Business Research, 125, 609-620.

Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N., & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The Circular Economy – A New Sustainability Paradigm?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 757–768.

Hazée, S., Delcourt, C., & Van Vaerenbergh, Y. (2017). Burdens of access: understanding customer barriers and barrier-attenuating practices in access-based services. Journal of Service Research, 20(4), 441-456.

Khitous, F., Strozzi, F., Urbinati, A., & Alberti, F. (2020). A systematic literature network analysis of existing themes and emerging research trends in circular economy. Sustainability, 12(4), 1633.

Lacy, P., Keeble, J., McNamara, R., Rutqvist, J., Haglund, T., Cui, M., ... & Buddemeier, P. (2014). Circular advantage: innovative business models and technologies to create value in a world without limits to growth. Accenture: Chicago, IL, USA.

Lüdeke‐Freund, F., Gold, S., & Bocken, N. M. (2019). A review and typology of circular economy business model patterns. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 23(1), 36-61.

McCarthy, A., Helf, M., & Börkey, P. (2018). Business Models for the Circular Economy–Opportunities and Challenges From a Policy Perspective. OECD Environment Working Papers, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Mostaghel, R., & Chirumalla, K. (2021). Role of customers in circular business models. Journal of Business Research, 127, 35-44.

Rasool, A., Shah, F. A., & Islam, J. U. (2020). Customer engagement in the digital age: A review and research agenda. Current Opinion in Psychology, 36, 96-100.

Vijverman, N., Henkens, B., & Verleye, K. (2019). Engagement and technology as key enablers for a circular economy. In Handbook of Research on Customer Engagement. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Zeithaml, V. A., Verleye, K., Hatak, I., Koller, M., & Zauner, A. (2020). Three decades of customer value research: paradigmatic roots and future research avenues. Journal of Service Research, 23(4), 409-432.

Prof. Dr. Arne De Keyser
Prof. Dr. Katrien Verleye
Prof. Dr. Simon Hazée
Guest Editors

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• customer experience
• customer engagement
• customer value
• circular business models
• sustainability