The (il)logic of ownership

Abstract

Recent experience has clearly shown that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are difficult to get back from customers to close loops through current end-of-pipe collection solutions. This paper explores the potential of a shift in business logic away from ownership as its central concept, to use or value (through e.g. leasing or pay-per-use). In other words, a shift towards alternatives to the classic sales offer (where product ownership is transferred to the customer in one transaction). An appealing advantage of these alternatives is that a company retains control over its devices, facilitating resource recovery. Consequently, these concepts seem particularly interesting from a circular economy perspective as they could have the capacity of decoupling economic value creation from material input. To make the opportunities of such a transformation more conceptual, the paper aligns terminology and taxonomy of commercial offers for mobile devices and provides an overview of what defines alternative commercial offers.