Guest editorial: Navigating the role of circular economy in entrepreneurship: opportunities and challenges – part one

摘要

Entrepreneurship growth is continuously tied to improving the economy of the country, society and people (Adeel et al., 2023; Funko et al., 2023; Huang et al., 2022; Schiavone et al., 2020). Entrepreneurship contains enterprising and opportunity-seeking people who could realize business opportunities and are capable enough to respond to them, notwithstanding the existing assets and resources (Dana et al., 2022; Gulsia and Yadav, 2023; Tubulingane, 2020; Zuazua Ruiz et al., 2023). Among a diversity of methods developed for economic development by literature, economists, academics and scientists, a new concept of the circular economy (CE) has appeared to aid industries and businesses in generating dual profits (Jakhar Suresh et al., 2019; Singh Sanjay and Singh Ajai, 2019). The entrepreneurial idea is realized as an essential portion of realizing a company or a firm (Chen et al., 2023; Witt, 2007; Zhao et al., 2023). Consequently, it is vital to evaluate why entrepreneurs are involved in start-up development; in this case, entrepreneurs work within the CE concept.The CE concept has become an increasingly discussed subject in industries and businesses; officeholders still fight to implement CE plans (Singh Sanjay and Singh Ajai, 2019; Singhal et al., 2019). According to Zamfir et al. (2017), circular economy practices (CEP) at the firm level can include aiming at waste reduction while maintaining the value of resources and products in the system to achieve entrepreneurial sustainability. Whereas in recent years, circular entrepreneurs have been highlighted in different industries and organizations, a few studies have been conducted to understand why and how these entrepreneurs are generating start-ups inside the CE. Meanwhile, the concept of the CE is a novel and still emerging arena of study (Alonso-Almeida et al., 2020; Makropoulos et al., 2018; Zhu et al., 2019); the literature argues that the circular entrepreneur could be an innovative kind of entrepreneur. Meanwhile, they might hold diverse viewpoints on critical developments and characteristics typically understood inside founders engaging in start-up development. Consequently, understanding an entrepreneur’s motivation to join in the CE’s plans is significant for efforts to entrepreneurial development in this different alternative economy (Colin David, 2020; Yang et al., 2023).The objectives of this special issue (SI) included:In this SI, we received 65 submissions in the fields of CE and entrepreneurship. In the following section, we presented an overview of the papers in this SI. We then summarize what we have learned as a whole from the research and theory covered.In the first paper, Le et al. (2024) examine the mechanism of how CEP and CE entrepreneurship (CEE) promote sustainable supply chain management (SCM) and facilitate sustainable performance (SP) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food value chain in the emerging economy. Smart partial least squares (PLS) version 3.3.2 was employed to analyze structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationships between constructs and latent variables. The results of the analysis indicated that sustainable SCM mediates the link between CEP and SP.In the second paper, Botella-Carrubi et al. (2024) investigated the role of entrepreneurial skills as a vehicle for business growth. Accordingly, this research refers to an individual’s skills’ impact on the entrepreneurial environment. For this purpose, a survey has been developed of employees of different organizations, considering the variables of the high degree of proactivity in the employees’ attitude, entrepreneurial training, innovation, previous experience or risk aversion. The research has been conducted through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), and the result shows the differences between the combination of variables for business growth through the consideration of sales growth and profit. The research demonstrated the combin