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Better-Life-Index. Observing the development of these measures can provide an
indication of the general well-being of a society. However, there are many different
causes leading to the effects, and it is impossible to directly link the development
to the implementation of circular economy.
Independently from the method, a major challenge for conducting those cost-ben-efit assessments will be the data accuracy, confidentiality, availability, and quality
of the assessments. The reason for this is that there are many impacts, especially for
the dimensions ecology and society, which are difficult to quantify in both physical
and monetary terms. The bottom line is that there is currently not enough data to
evaluate whether the circular economy is better than a linear economy.
7.2 Limitations and Opportunities for Future Research
7.2 Limitations and Opportunities for Future Research
In this chapter limitations will be presented for the research methodology and the
sample. Starting with the methodology for this thesis in line with other qualitative
studies and inductive research approaches, a number of limitations apply. Due to the
early stage and the exploratory nature of the research topic the dissertation needs
to be regarded as an initial step and starting point to gain a deeper insight into the
circular economy concept, especially due to its implementation in Western countries
as opposed to China, where much work has already been done in the academic field.
The research methodology applied in this project bears the risk of a potential bias
that might occur at different phases of the research project. Conducting the study
means that the researcher selected the cases, asked the questions in the interviews,
and analyzed and interpreted them mainly alone. Although, triangulation was a
measure to reduce the potential bias (as described in chapter 3.1.2), the central role
of the researcher has to be recognized as an influence on the study. A setting with
multiple researchers could support future qualitative research.
Moreover, sampling implies some limitations, which shall be described inthe following. As is quite common in research projects conducting case studies,
a theoretical sampling approach has been chosen. This leads to some boundary
conditions for the developed results.
First, the study is focused on industries producing consumer goods (clothing,parquet, office chairs, and agribusiness), which are industries in which products are
of lower value and relationships between businesses and consumers are common.
The low value of products might influence certain circular economy decisions
of the organization and have an impact on the challenges the organizations are
facing. Thus, future research should broaden this perspective and investigate the