Circular business model experimentation capabilities—A case study approach

Real‐world experiments are best suited for testing and validating novel circular business models (CBMs). Despite the increasing prominence of experimentation in CBM research, there is a lack of investigations on how firms manage and organize CBM experiments. This study aims to fill this research gap by examining the organizational capabilities needed to orchestrate CBM experiments, beyond prototyping, piloting, iterating, and scaling up. Drawing on a systematic within‐ and cross‐case analysis with two fundamentally different firms that nevertheless share the same objective—the dynamic stabilization of a long‐term viable CBM—we offer a new perspective on the management and organization of CBM experiments. The study shows how the investigated firms have developed three CBM experimentation capabilities over time, which can be disaggregated into (1) contextualizing, (2) dynamic co‐structuring, and (3) governing intangible assets. Moreover, the findings provide further theoretical directions for CBM experiments and identify gaps for future research.