Circular business models in social housing associations: Bridging ecological goals and social contexts

In order to address the lack of attention to the social dimension of circular business models, this paper focusses on these models in the context of a social housing association. Due to their dominant social mission and strong ties with local communities, housing associations need to consider the social dimension of sustainability within circular business models. The first objective of this paper is to investigate the circular business models that can be adopted by housing associations and to categorize them in a set of archetypes. This paper recognizes that circular business models are not isolated but situated in networks in which linkages with communities may be highly important for housing associations. The second objective is therefore to investigate the important characteristics of linkages with communities within the networks in which the circular business models of housing associations are situated. Through an in-depth case study involving a grey literature investigation, 2 focus groups and 15 interviews, we found that circular business models in housing associations are likely to be decoupled from their social activities. The results highlighted that two-way linkages with communities may avoid decoupling and potentially lead to the emergence of a new set of socially inclusive circular business models.