Jul 2026· International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management· Vol 38, pp. 2545-2562· 0 citations· 24 references
Abstract
This paper aims to critique the prevailing linear growth model in hospitality, which is associated with volume-driven expansion, intensive resource use and the externalisation of environmental and social costs. It examines the implications of these practices for environmental sustainability, community stability and economic resilience, and proposes a circular value ecosystem as an alternative framework through which hospitality systems can generate regenerative ecological, social and economic value.
As a critical reflection, the paper uses a conceptual synthesis of literature and theory to interrogate dominant growth assumptions, contrast them with socio-ecological alternatives and develop a regeneration-orientated research and practice agenda, calling for a shift in the underlying logic through which hospitality growth, performance and responsibility are understood.
The paper argues that dominant growth-orientated models misalign with long-term environmental and social goals, and that indicators such as RevPAR and occupancy maximisation fail to capture wider value creation. It develops the Circular Value Ecosystem (CVE) as a regenerative alternative and introduces three novel conceptual metrics, namely, the Regenerative Value Index (RVI), the Resource Circularity Score (RCS) and the Community Embeddedness Ratio (CER), to operationalise multi-capital value creation in hospitality contexts.
It proposes three metrics (regenerative value, resource circularity and community embeddedness) to support strategic decision-making and performance assessment and shows how business models can be reconfigured to operate within environmental limits while strengthening the role of hospitality firms within their local ecosystems.
This paper provides practical tools and guidance for hospitality managers to move beyond incremental sustainability. It introduces clear metrics – such as regenerative value, resource circularity and community embeddedness – that can support performance assessment and strategic decision-making. The findings also outline how business models can be adapted to operate within environmental limits while strengthening the role of hospitality firms as active contributors to their local ecosystems.
This paper offers an original contribution by integrating circular and regenerative thinking into a hospitality-specific framework, underpinned by three novel metrics, that collectively reorients the trajectory of hospitality innovation toward regeneration, circularity and place-based stewardship.
This article interrogates the potential of the circular economy as a structuring paradigm for ecological transition and sustainable development in Tunisia, with particular emphasis on the management of construction and demolition waste (CDW). Situating the analysis within critiques of the dominant linear economic model, it elucidates how the circular reconfiguration of material flows may contribute to reducing environmental externalities, preserving natural capital, and stimulating territorially embedded forms of green employment. The study adopts a multidimensional and interdisciplinary methodological framework, combining a critical review of academic literature, the analysis of institutional and policy reports, qualitative interviews with key public and private stakeholders, and an in- depth case study of the RE-MED project, implemented notably in the Greater Tunis region. The study's results demonstrate the development of novel socio-technical configurations for reclaiming and recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW). Concurrently, they underscore how deeply entrenched institutional inertia, regulatory deficiencies, economic hurdles, and socio-cultural pushback continue to obstruct the widespread systemic adoption of circular economy models. The article concludes by advancing a set of policy-relevant recommendations aimed at reinforcing governancearchitectures, consolidating recycling value chains, and fostering the societal embedding of circular economy principles within the Tunisian context.
M. Ellouze· Advances in Social Sciences...· 0 citations
This conceptual paper examines how organisations can operationalise long-term value creation under ecological constraints. While sustainability frameworks have broadened value creation beyond shareholder interests, they often assume that economic, social, and ecological value can be balanced or optimised simultaneously. From an ecological economics perspective, this is problematic, as economic activity is constrained by ecological systems. Building on ecological economics, the paper develops a hierarchical understanding of value creation in which ecological value constitutes a necessary condition for social and economic value. Accordingly, stakeholder-oriented value creation and sustainability performance are reconceptualised as condition-bound rather than additive processes. The paper introduces Integral Sustainability Performance (ISP) as a conceptual construct that embeds ecological constraints across organisational layers of values, culture, strategy, governance, and business models. ISP links macro-level ecological constraints to organisational processes and provides a basis for operationalizing sustainability performance within ecological limits.
Bauke Feenstra, L. Rijsdijk, Egbert Dommerholt· Journal of Sustainability· 0 citations
Economic development has generated major gains in productivity, technological capability and material prosperity, while also intensifying ecological pressures, unequal value distribution and the separation of financial performance from social contribution. This conceptual article develops the Meaningful Economy as an integrative framework for redirecting economic activity towards human flourishing, ecological viability and value for stakeholders. It uses a problem-oriented integrative synthesis spanning ecological and institutional economics, the capability approach, the sociology of work, stakeholder theory, humanistic management, financialisation, corporate governance and social accounting. The analysis identifies seven institutional transitions: from indefinite growth to sufficient well-being; from the exploitation of nature to ecological balance; from means to human ends; from financial profit to value for stakeholders; from short-termism to legacy; from meritocracy to inclusive capacity; and from one-dimensional maximisation to balanced governance. Three cross-cutting mechanisms—people-centred work and technology, socially embedded finance and stakeholderoriented social accounting—connect these principles to organisational practice. The framework’s central contribution is a principle of systemic viability grounded in satisficing: institutions should maintain several essential economic, social and ecological conditions rather than maximise a single metric at the expense of the system that sustains it. The Meaningful Economy therefore does not reject markets, firms, technology, finance or profitability; it repositions them as instruments whose legitimacy depends on the quality, distribution and durability of the value they create.
J. Retolaza, Leire San-Jose· Advances in Social Sciences...· 0 citations
This paper provides anecdotes and examples on a wide range of topics related to sustainability, circular economy, local governance, and community development in Nepal, and illustrates the disconnect between global concepts like the circular economy and the ground realities of rural Nepal. It discusses the origins of the circular economy concept, its benefits, and the challenges likely to be faced while transitioning from a linear model of production and consumption to one that is cyclical. The role of local governments in adopting new practices like waste management and the potential pitfalls of introducing modern solutions without considering traditional practices and local contexts have been analyzed within the complexities surrounding the circular economy, especially in relation to practicality in implementation in rural areas. Being based on secondary literatures, and the author’s own observation-based reflection, the article also discusses how imported ideas and practices, if not aligned with local traditions and resources, can lead to unintended consequences and challenges. The critique of initiatives that prioritize superficial modernization over addressing core issues like sustainable waste management or preserving traditional farming practices has also been discussed.
U. Pyakurel· Aadim Journal of Multidiscip...· 0 citations
Transitioning toward a circular and regenerative economy requires more than technological innovation; it demands a shift in the underlying systems that shape how value, knowledge, and legitimacy are defined [Meadows D, Randers J, Meadows D, The limits to growth: the 30-year update, Routledge (2012); Raworth K, Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist, Chelsea Green Publishing (2017)]. While the circular economy (CE) is widely promoted as a pathway to sustainability, its implementation across industrial sectors remains uneven and frequently limited to efficiency-driven, technical interventions [Voulvoulis N et al., Glob. Environ. Change 75:102544 (2022)]. This paper examines the systemic conditions that constrain the adoption of circular economy principles through a case study of the craft distilling industry in regional Victoria, Australia. Guided by Sposito’s (2021) Rational–Holistic Model of Planning and Decision-Making, the study applies a multimethodological systems approach, integrating thematic analysis, boundary critique, and soft systems tools (PQR and CATWOE). This enables an exploration of how system structures - particularly those relating to motivation, control, knowledge, and legitimacy - shape what is considered feasible and acceptable in practice. The findings reveal that barriers to circular economy implementation are not solely technical or economic but are embedded within broader institutional and cultural frameworks. Regulatory fragmentation, compliance-driven definitions of legitimacy, and economically dominant worldviews constrain the uptake of more regenerative practices. By contrasting existing (“is mode”) and alternative (“ought mode”) system configurations, the study highlights the importance of reconfiguring underlying assumptions about system purpose and governance. The paper contributes methodologically by demonstrating how systems thinking combined with thematic analysis can reveal structural constraints, and conceptually by positioning CE as a pathway dependent on a broader shift toward a sustainability-oriented worldview.
Kristin Lemura, R. Faggian· Systemic Practice and Action...· 0 citations
Forest governance rests on a stubborn paradox. Conceptual understanding has matured over recent decades, moving from sustained-yield forestry toward a reading of forests as complex adaptive socio-ecological systems, yet governance practice has not followed and remains lodged in fragmented
sectoral structures that keep reproducing incoherent policy, unenforced law, misaligned economic incentives and poor social outcomes. The Integrated Synergy Model is presented to address that gap, a diagnostic framework that couples three bodies of theory not previously brought together: Meadows’
leverage-points hierarchy in the nine-point condensation which Abson
et al
. (2017) proposed, Ostrom’s eight design principles for common-pool resources, and qualitative causal loop diagrams, run across four governance axes of policy, law, economics and society. The design is conceptual
and theory-building, drawing on an integrative narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2025, mapping that literature onto Ostrom’s principles, and screening candidate variables through three criteria of structural centrality, leverage depth and cross-axis
reach. Three feedback structures carry the argument. A virtuous reinforcing loop (R1) links secure tenure, community stewardship, ecosystem-service provision and political legitimacy, while a vicious reinforcing loop (R2) entrenches degradation as weak enforcement, illegal extraction and eroded
fiscal capacity feed. A balancing loop of payments for ecosystem services and market signals (B1) operates, but only where tenure security is already in place. Of the nine candidate variables screened, three stand out as priority leverage points; namely, tenure security, independent monitoring,
and intersectoral coordination, each of which acts on system design rather than on parameters. A three-step diagnostic roadmap of mapping, diagnosis and monitoring is presented, which lets national and sub-national forest authorities audit the leverage depth of their own governance portfolios.
H. Ünal, Ü. Birben· International forestry revie...· 0 citations
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