A theoretical tool for evaluating the circular maturity of agrifood companies

The global agricultural output needs to expand by 70% to meet food demand by 2050 (FAO, 2017). While increased agricultural output has helped maintain a balance between production and environmental protection, it also posed a substantial challenge to long-term food production and sustainability. Agri-food companies should be able to combine economic growth and environmental sustainability challenges (Agnusdei and Coluccia, 2022). A new food policy coherent with the goal of achieving sustainable food systems implies changing visions and radically revising the understanding of the system on which agricultural and food-related policies act (Galli et al., 2020). Recently, the EU launched the new Circular Economy Action Plan (2020) as a pillar of the European Green Deal, which opens a new perspective for the application of circular economy in the agri-food sector. Because of various tangible and intangible advantages, the circular economy is the most revolutionary concept in the modern agri-food sector that could turn production methods into more accessible and practical solutions (Nordin et al., 2022). Although the circular economy concept is gaining traction and methods to assess companies’ circular economy- related aspects exist, there is no established assessment tool. An increasing number of scholars and practitioners have focused on the assessment of the progress of circular economy initiatives and, accordingly, on the development of performance measurement tools, that can support policy makers (Sacco et al., 2021). However, most of the approaches proposed to assess circularity provide only partial information, mainly focusing on the analysis of environmental sustainability performance. In many cases, it is not clear how metrics or indicators included in extant circular economy assessment methods have been selected. Beyond the attempts of measuring the firm’s performance circularity, what is lacking is an approach that can assess the circular maturity status of a company, considering the complexity and disruption of all circular economy principles. In this context, the present study is aimed at developing a theoretical model to assess the circularity of the agri-food companies based on four dimensions in which circular actions could be implemented: operations, product and services, culture and organization, and environment. According to Lacy et al. (2020), through these dimensions it is possible to detect the degree of maturity of a firm, understood as the extent to which it is implementing circular business models for all four dimensions. Necessarily, in order to reach an advanced level of transformation, companies will not have to dwell on just one dimension but will have to implement the new models on all of them in parallel. This model is a useful tool to understand the extent to which companies are implementing circular business models across different dimensions, and thus where they are still lacking. Moreover, it represents a method to classify the companies according to the degree of implementation of circular economy actions, from a state where they have just started the transition (emerging) to the accomplishment of it (ultimate). These levels present a progression associated with the stage of consolidation of the circular economy practices adopted by the organization. The more professional the management, the more consolidated the practices adopted tend to be. Each level of maturity demands the formalization of a set of practices that contribute positively to making the companies sustainable. In conclusion, the framework developed in the study allows for establishing the degree of maturity of agri-food companies which is crucial for calibrating strategies designed to introduce circular economy models.