Accelerators as Circular Ecosystem Facilitators: Heterogeneity and Resource-Based Value Drivers for Enterprises
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-3595Keywords:
Circular Ecosystem, Circular Entrepreneurship, Accelerator, Incubator, Training, Mentorship, Funding, Networks, Resource-Based ViewAbstract
Accelerators in the circular economy (CE) are more than matchmakers; they are resource orchestrators whose value depends on enterprise context. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this paper analyzes intake and exit surveys from 37 startups and SMEs participating in a Southern Ontario agri-food CE accelerator in Canada, spanning four categories: Circular Agriculture, Consumer Goods from Upcycled Food, Circular Packaging Solutions, and Low Waste Food Retail. To capture differentiated value creation, we apply LDA topic modeling with TF-IDF validation and lexicon-based sentiment analysis to assess supports including training, mentorship, funding, and networking. Findings show clear category-specific heterogeneity. Circular Agriculture prioritizes training and funding; Consumer Goods from Upcycled Food emphasizes training; Low Waste Food Retail values funding most; and Circular Packaging emphasizes funding while training is largely absent. These distinct patterns align with each category’s supply-loop position and baseline resource endowments, validating the RBV’s central claim of heterogeneity in a CE setting. Robustness checks (TF-IDF overlap; document–topic probabilities) confirm results despite the modest sample size. The study’s findings imply that one-size-fits-all accelerator design is inadequate. Tailored support bundles matched to enterprise category enhance efficiency and outcomes, positioning accelerators not only as ecosystem facilitators but also as value distributors, extending RBV from firm-level advantage to ecosystem-level resource orchestration.
References
Adner, R., & Kapoor, R. (2010). Value creation in innovation ecosystems: How the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations. Strategic management journal, 31(3), 306-333. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.821
Aranda-Usón, A., Portillo-Tarragona, P., Marín-Vinuesa, L. M., & Scarpellini, S. (2019). Financial resources for the circular economy: A perspective from businesses. Sustainability, 11(3), 888. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030888
Barnett, G. A., Calabrese, C., & Ruiz, J. B. (2023). A comparison of three methods to determine the subject matter in textual data. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 8, 1104691. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2023.1104691
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of management, 17(1), 99-120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
Bergmann, T., & Utikal, H. (2021). How to support start-ups in developing a sustainable business model: The case of a European social impact accelerator. Sustainability, 13(6), 3337. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063337
Blei, D. M. (2012). Probabilistic topic models. Communications of the ACM, 55(4), 77-84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2133806.2133826
Brodie, J., Van Saane, S. H., & Osowska, R. (2017). Help wanted: Exploring the value of entrepreneurial mentoring at start-up. Industry and Higher Education, 31(2), 122-131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422217691666
Chapin III, F. S., Matson, P. A., & Vitousek, P. M. (2011). The ecosystem concept. In Principles of terrestrial ecosystem ecology (pp. 3-22). New York, NY: Springer New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9504-9_1
Chang, J., Gerrish, S., Wang, C., Boyd-Graber, J., & Blei, D. (2009). Reading tea leaves: How humans interpret topic models. Advances in neural information processing systems, 22.
Cocker, J., & Graham, K. (2019). Circular economy in Canada. In Circular economy: Global perspective (pp. 87-122). Singapore: Springer Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1052-6_5
Cohen, S., Bingham, C., & Hallen, B. (2019a). The role of accelerator designs in mitigating bounded rationality in new ventures. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(4), 810–854. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839218782131
Cohen, S., Fehder, D. C., Hochberg, Y. V., & Murray, F. (2019b). The design of startup accelerators. Research Policy, 48(7), 1781–1797. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2019.04.003
Dalmaijer, E. S., Nord, C. L., & Astle, D. E. (2022). Statistical power for cluster analysis. BMC bioinformatics, 23(1), 205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04675-1
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015. Growth Within: a Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe. Ellen MacArthur Found, p. 100.
Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M., & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The Circular Economy–A new sustainability paradigm?. Journal of cleaner production, 143, 757-768. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048
Geissdoerfer, M., Kanda, W., & Kirchherr, J. (2025). Conceptualizing circular ecosystems: An analysis of 45 definitions. Business Strategy and the Environment. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70242
de Vasconcelos Gomes, L. A., Castillo-Ospina, D. A., Facin, A. L. F., dos Santos Ferreira, C., & Ometto, A. R. (2023). Circular ecosystem innovation portfolio management. Technovation, 124, 102745. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102745
Hermann, R. R., & Bossle, M. B. (2020). Bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education: A teaching framework based on content analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 246, 119038. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119038
Ivey Business School. Circular economy lab. (2024). https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/sustainability/impact-labs/circular-economy-lab/
Jacobides, M. G., Cennamo, C., & Gawer, A. (2018). Towards a theory of ecosystems. Strategic management journal, 39(8), 2255-2276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2904
Jacobs, C., Soulliere, K., Sawyer-Beaulieu, S., Sabzwari, A., & Tam, E. (2022). Challenges to the circular economy: Recovering wastes from simple versus complex products. Sustainability, 14(5), 2576. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052576
Kanda, W., Geissdoerfer, M., & Hjelm, O. (2021). From circular business models to circular business ecosystems. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(6), 2814-2829. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2895
Kargruber, J., Golser, M., Hofer, A., & Rauch, E. (2025). Determining training needs to promote circular economy and decarbonization in production. Procedia Computer Science, 253, 1144-1153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2025.01.176
Kirchherr, J., & van Santen, R. (2019). Research on the circular economy: A critique of the field. Resources, conservation and recycling, 151, 104480. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104480
Kirchherr, J., Reike, D., & Hekkert, M. (2017). Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions. Resources, conservation and recycling, 127, 221-232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005
Kohler, T. (2016). Corporate accelerators: Building bridges between corporations and startups. Business horizons, 59(3), 347-357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2016.01.008
Lange, G. S. (2018). The Value of Business Incubators and Accelerators from the Entrepreneurs Perspective.
Lin, C. C., & Chang, Y. C. (2024). Impact of circular economy network building: resilience strategy to climate action. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, 16(3), 337-361. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-12-2022-0150
Memon, J., Rozan, M. Z. A., Ismail, K., & Jahanzeb, A. (2018). Mentor Protege Matchmaking Framework for IT Entrepreneurs: A Qualitative Study. arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.04724.
Millette, S., Hull, C. E., & Williams, E. (2020). Business incubators as effective tools for driving circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 266, 121999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121999
Narayana, A., Verma, U. K., Vijayvargy, L., Sahoo, A., & Shastri, R. K. (2024). Network Building Capabilities for a Sustainable and Circular Economy. International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering & Management Sciences, 9(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2024.9.2.016
Newman, D., Lau, J. H., Grieser, K., & Baldwin, T. (2010, June). Automatic evaluation of topic coherence. In Human language technologies: The 2010 annual conference of the North American chapter of the association for computational linguistics (pp. 100-108).
Pauwels, C., Clarysse, B., Wright, M., & van Hove, J. (2016). Understanding a new generation incubation model: The accelerator. Technovation, 50–51, 13–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2015.09.003
Peteraf, M. A. (1993). The cornerstones of competitive advantage: a resource‐based view. Strategic management journal, 14(3), 179-191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250140303
Pietrulla, F. (2022). Circular ecosystems: A review. Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy, 3, 100031. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clcb.2022.100031
Qaiser, S., & Ali, R. (2018). Text mining: use of TF-IDF to examine the relevance of words to documents. International journal of computer applications, 181(1), 25-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5120/ijca2018917395
Rizos, V., Behrens, A., Van der Gaast, W., Hofman, E., Ioannou, A., Kafyeke, T., ... & Topi, C. (2016). Implementation of circular economy business models by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): Barriers and enablers. Sustainability, 8(11), 1212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111212
Saarinen, A., & Aarikka-Stenroos, L. (2023). Financing-related drivers and barriers for circular economy business: Developing a conceptual model from a field study. Circular Economy and Sustainability, 3(3), 1187-1211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-022-00222-5
Seitz, N., Buratti, M., Lehmann, E. E., & Kurrle, J. (2025). A meta-analysis towards the effectiveness of startup accelerators. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 1-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-025-10218-6
Sultana, N., & Turkina, E. (2023). Collaboration for sustainable innovation ecosystem: The role of intermediaries. Sustainability, 15(10), 7754. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107754
Teece, D. J., Pisano, G., & Shuen, A. (1997). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic management journal, 18(7), 509-533. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199708)18:7<509::AID-SMJ882>3.0.CO;2-Z
Teece, D. J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic management journal, 28(13), 1319-1350. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.640
Trevisan, A. H., Castro, C. G., Gomes, L. A., & Mascarenhas, J. (2022). Unlocking the circular ecosystem concept: Evolution, current research, and future directions. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 29, 286-298. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.10.020
Ulstein, J. (2024). Structural topic modeling as a mixed methods research design: a study on employer size and labor market outcomes for vulnerable groups. Quality & Quantity, 58(5), 4331-4351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-024-01857-2
Van Opstal, W., & Borms, L. (2023). Startups and circular economy strategies: Profile differences, barriers and enablers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 396, 136510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136510
Virga, G., Gomes, J., & Guerreiro, L. (2025). Advancing inclusive mentorship and psychology in entrepreneurship. Discover Psychology, 5(1), 27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-025-00353-4
Wankhade, M., Rao, A. C. S., & Kulkarni, C. (2022). A survey on sentiment analysis methods, applications, and challenges. Artificial Intelligence Review, 55(7), 5731-5780. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-022-10144-1
Witt, P. (2004). Entrepreneurs’ networks and the success of start-ups. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 16(5), 391-412. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0898562042000188423
Welter, F., Baker, T., Audretsch, D. B., & Gartner, W. B. (2017). Everyday entrepreneurship—a call for entrepreneurship research to embrace entrepreneurial diversity. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 41(3), 311-321. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12258
Wernerfelt, B. (1984). A resource‐based view of the firm. Strategic management journal, 5(2), 171-180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250050207
Yoon, C., Moon, S., & Lee, H. (2022). Symbiotic relationships in business ecosystem: a systematic literature review. Sustainability, 14(4), 2252. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042252
Downloads
Published
Data Availability Statement
Data are not publicly available due to confidentiality restrictions. The data were collected through a circular economy accelerator program for which participants did not agree to the dissemination of their survey responses. Aggregated results and analysis are available from the authors upon reasonable request, subject to approval by the data-providing organization.
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Isabel Maddocks, Christopher Coghlan, Dihui Han, Ghina El Haffar, Tirtha Dhar, Laurette Dubé (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
