Investigating the elements of Customer Value Creation in a Circular Business Model : A case of a Swedish startup

Sammanfattning: The circular economy and its implications on businesses have been an area of interest for researchers and firms alike. The transition has been a rough one, but many firms are moving towards sustainable practices these days, if not circular.  One of the major challenges that lie within the circular economy and circular business models is that there is very little or partial understanding of how value can be created for a customer within this realm. Moreover, complications arise when fragmented elements drive the idea behind customer value creation in a circular business model setting.     Therefore, in order to study and understand more about this concept, we performed qualitative case-study research with the help of a Swedish start-up. Our interviews included 7 actors: 2 from the case company, and 5 of their customers. An established customer value creation framework was adopted to analyze and compare with the findings from our study. This framework consists of 4 components, Functional/Instrumental value, Experiential/Hedonic Value, Cost/Sacrifice value, and Symbolic/Expressive value. Keeping this framework as the foundation for our study and by using thematic analysis, the empirical data collected was analyzed and changed to categories, initial codes, and final codes which has overarching themes from the framework used.   Firstly, the findings of the study indicate that there were a lot of similarities and differences between the opinions of the firm for value proposition and the opinion of the customers for value creation. Secondly, it indicates that each element has a unique contribution to the overall phenomenon of customer value and finally it indicates the importance for companies to focus on each element individually. We highlight in our study how each element in the framework is connected to the drivers of satisfaction to generate customer satisfaction.