Introduction to theme (Entrepreurship, SDG’s and New Business models)
The Innovative power from the new combinations of actors and new forms of value creation
VI.Transition from traditional to new business models and integrating sustainability
In the process of Local Economic Development we found (Pennink, 2012,2015) that often not only entrepreneurs were involved in that. Similar to the circular economy, the actors were looking for ways to find how new activities can be found or created and can be worked out in such a way that more people in local situations would continue to do so. This process has certain analogies with the theories on Circular Economics. In those theories the innovative power is coming from finding new combinations of actors and new forms of value creation. New refers to the idea that innovations in economic development will come not just from entrepreneurs and new also refers to not only the classical value creation of Return on Investments (Jonker, 2014).
Future research will be in three directions:
In the first direction, we will show how working in the field of Local Economic Development applied in developing countries has similarities with the multi-value creation process. We learned from this field how to involve actors in new economic and social activities. This project work took place from 2005 -2011 and research activities related to that work from 2005 -2016. Based on this experience and research results we think that raising questions on how to create the value is fruitful and interesting for the field of circular economy.
In the second direction, by applying the idea of multi-value creation in a developed world, in a region where there is a shrinking economy we argue that another question has to be raised: which values can be developed and which actors can be involved and which combination(s) can contribute to local economic development. This part was grounded on an applied research project for an NGO and carried out in 2015.
In a third direction we will work a matrix that, in a structured way, raises questions on the multi-value creation process and how these answers in different combinations can be supportive for Local Economic Development. This matrix will cover more than for example the MultiCapital Scorecard of McElroy & Thomas, 2015 and or the ideas suggested by Faber and Hadders (2015) on the social contract between actors and by creating a matrix we add to the field of New Business Models by arguing that our questions cover new value creation directions that can be used for new business models related to Local Economic Development in developing countries and in for regions in developed countries with a shrinking economy.