Rannveig Edda Hjaltadottir (p), Dolores Modic

Jacek Chądzyński

Circular Economy (CE) and innovation are often presented as a key to economic growth while supporting material loops, synergies, and sustainable use of resources. With growing emphasis on CE in policy and business development, there are few extensive cases of CE innovation and business model development at the system level, industry, supply chain or regional levels. This article deals with the case of the Icelandic fishing industry and how the quota system enforced in 1983 as a response to the decline in the Atlantic cod around the island has driven CE innovation in multi-stakeholder engagement and the sustainable use of the resources. The main research question is thus: how has the Icelandic fishing industry used CE Innovation and business model development as a response to an external shock? The research is based on a qualitative dataset, including interviews, observations and secondary sources from firms and industry-level actors. The article focuses on a single case of a processing factory in northern Iceland and their co-development with supply chain actors at regional and national levels in developing systems for CE business models and innovation. Our findings show that the over 50% cut in the tonnage of cod and the allocation of yearly amounts to each ship has driven innovation and CE in the fishing industry in three main stages. First-level responses focused on securing the quality of the fish landed, innovation to ensure a higher yield of fillets and marketing efforts, and increasing material efficiency and prices. In the second stage, development is centred on products using heads, livers, and other parts, pushing the yield of each fish to 55%. The third stage focused on the full use of whole fish, with a national average of 92% in 2024. The shock presented by the quota system limiting access to raw materials has thus been a strong driver towards CE in the industry, influencing the whole supply chain and every aspect of the Business model of our case firm. Material scarcity thus drives innovation and growth through material efficiency and technology, as well as building national markets for producing high-value products from previously wasted fish parts.

Jacek Chądzyński (p)

Aygün Kam

From the Vistula to the Bosphorus – students’ attitudes towards the circular economy – a comparative perspective of Poland and Turkey
The aim of the presentation is to present the theoretical and methodological foundations and research results. The subject of the conducted research are the attitudes of students of Polish and Turkish universities in the area of ​​the circular economy. The transition from a linear economy to a circular economy requires the involvement of all stakeholders of these changes, including society. The involvement of society (its members) is essential for the possibility of closing the cycle, or the system that creates this cycle. In the study, we assumed that young, educated people, i.e. students, should be the main driving force of changes that will bring the economy closer to circularity. However, the condition for this is their positive attitude towards the circular economy.
The aim of the study was to identify and diagnose the attitudes of students of Polish and Turkish universities towards the circular economy. The researchers also intend to compare these attitudes in two selected countries. One of them is an integral part of the European Union (EU), which aims to transform national economies towards circularity, and the other remains outside the EU, although it has been trying to join these structures since 1999. On the other hand, in both selected countries, the level of circularity of economies is relatively low, although there is a small difference in favor of Poland.
This objective was achieved by providing answers to the research questions, the two main ones of which are:
How are the attitudes of students of Polish and Turkish universities shaped towards the circular economy?
What are the similarities and differences in the attitudes of students from Polish and Turkish universities towards the circular economy?
The quantitative method – survey – was used in the research. The research material was obtained by using a survey technique and a research tool in the form of an online survey questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions that took into account all three previously mentioned components of attitudes.
The research sample consists of students from Polish and Turkish universities. Due to the unavailability of sampling frames that meet the criteria of adequacy and completeness, accuracy and lack of repetitions, and consequently the possibility of applying random sampling, the sample selection is non-random and is based on the availability of respondents (occasional sample).

Aygün Kam (p)

Zbigniew Przygodzki

In recent years, remote work has become a response to the needs of modern economies where private and public institutions operate and create networks of connections. The public utility sector, which refers to an activity, good, or service that brings benefits or collective interests to the residents of a country, is among them. However, public utility sector organizations are in an extraordinary situation because their primary goal, the current and continued satisfaction of social needs, partly determines innovative behavior. The lack of classic market determinants, such as profit orientation and private ownership, slows the adjustment to the new conditions. Consequently, effective remote work implementation presents a significant challenge for public utility sector organizations. With the widespread use of remote work, there is a need to identify whether and under what conditions remote work is economically effective in public utility sector organizations. Therefore, the study asses the effectiveness of resource allocation in the public utility sector groups during remote work. As a result, the results indicate that (1) remote work requirements do not occupy a significant portion of annual budgets for public utility services, (2) remote work allows reducing the fixed costs of maintaining stationary working in the short term, (3) even if remote work is a cost-effective method for public utility services and decreases indirect employee costs, it has yet to be incorporated successfully.

Zbigniew Przygodzki (p), Jagoda Adamus (p)

Rannveig Edda Hjaltadottir

Coherence and synergy of stakeholder activities in local development can be considered at the level of goals and results of activities. This is a basic condition for including an integrated approach in development processes. The transition towards a circular economy requires the involvement of all groups of partners responsible for forming the circular cluster: companies, academia, society and regional and local government. This involvement requires monitoring and coordination. Such coordination should be the government’s responsibility at the local and regional levels. Integration of activities induces synergy and is a function of the speed of change and the relevant dynamics of territorial development. This element is particularly important regarding systemic change, i.e. the evolution of a free market economy, operating under a linear production model, into a circular economy. However, it should be emphasised that integrating activities on a territorial scale (circular territorial cluster, CTC) does not necessarily mean direct cooperation between partners. The most important thing is that the activities of individual partners, to the greatest extent possible, affect the solution to the challenges of the other partners. Hence, the article aims to identify the scope of impact of the projects implemented by individual CTC stakeholders on the realisation of the other partners` challenges and objectives of the projects. In other words, the study aims to identify the extent of the interplay of ongoing projects for building a circular economy. The article also presents the tool, Territorial Compass of Cooperation, by which this identification is possible, indicating the desired direction of intervention to strengthen the convergence of territorial development stakeholders.