Material affordances in circular products and business model development : for a relational understanding of human and material agency
Babri, Maira ; Corvellec, Hervé LU
and Stål, Herman I.
(2022)
In Culture and Organization
28(1).
p.79-96
- Abstract
This paper uses the notion of material affordances to show that a focus on how people engage with materials helps understanding how organizations transit toward sustainability. Material affordances refer to the enablements and constraints afforded by materials to someone engaging with an environment for a particular purpose. Based on a qualitative study of a company's efforts at becoming circular, we show that material affordances are evolutive as organizational members shift focus from the development of products to the establishment of a circular business model. We also show that affordances are distributed across the company's circular ecosystem. Between what they enable and prevent, they invite humans to a dynamic engagement with... (More)
This paper uses the notion of material affordances to show that a focus on how people engage with materials helps understanding how organizations transit toward sustainability. Material affordances refer to the enablements and constraints afforded by materials to someone engaging with an environment for a particular purpose. Based on a qualitative study of a company's efforts at becoming circular, we show that material affordances are evolutive as organizational members shift focus from the development of products to the establishment of a circular business model. We also show that affordances are distributed across the company's circular ecosystem. Between what they enable and prevent, they invite humans to a dynamic engagement with materials that decenters human agencies to incorporate material agency in such efforts. A key contribution of the notion of material affordances is to put the relationships of humans and materials at the core of a transition toward circularity and sustainability.
(Less)
- author
- Babri, Maira
; Corvellec, Hervé
LU
and Stål, Herman I.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Affordance, Circular business model, Circular products, Materials, Organizational environmental sustainability
- in
- Culture and Organization
- volume
- 28
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 19 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85118294221
- ISSN
- 1475-9551
- DOI
- 10.1080/14759551.2021.1986506
- project
- Relations in Circular Business Models
- Circular North Sea Regions - Improving Governance for the Circular Economy
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- id
- 8357906c-c096-41f0-9e18-8955647d1020
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-11 13:47:28
- date last changed
- 2023-01-01 17:38:33
@article{8357906c-c096-41f0-9e18-8955647d1020,
abstract = {{<p>This paper uses the notion of material affordances to show that a focus on how people engage with materials helps understanding how organizations transit toward sustainability. Material affordances refer to the enablements and constraints afforded by materials to someone engaging with an environment for a particular purpose. Based on a qualitative study of a company's efforts at becoming circular, we show that material affordances are evolutive as organizational members shift focus from the development of products to the establishment of a circular business model. We also show that affordances are distributed across the company's circular ecosystem. Between what they enable and prevent, they invite humans to a dynamic engagement with materials that decenters human agencies to incorporate material agency in such efforts. A key contribution of the notion of material affordances is to put the relationships of humans and materials at the core of a transition toward circularity and sustainability.</p>}},
author = {{Babri, Maira and Corvellec, Hervé and Stål, Herman I.}},
issn = {{1475-9551}},
keywords = {{Affordance; Circular business model; Circular products; Materials; Organizational environmental sustainability}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{79--96}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Culture and Organization}},
title = {{Material affordances in circular products and business model development : for a relational understanding of human and material agency}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2021.1986506}},
doi = {{10.1080/14759551.2021.1986506}},
volume = {{28}},
year = {{2022}},
}