Abstract:
This research aims to identify the barriers for a transition towards the circular economy for the wholesale organization of Kramp, a typical wholesaler active in the agricultural sector. The research question is: ‘How is the transition towards the circular economy hampered for the wholesaler Kramp’. To identify the opportunities and barriers for the transition towards the CE, 23 semi-structured interviews were carried out. To find out whether the organizational culture was forming a barrier as well, an online employee questionnaire (n=212) using a Likert scale was carried out. The main group of barriers identified in this research were cultural barriers, with barriers in the market as the second most often mentioned group. This is in line with the general barriers for CE as found by Kircherr et al (2018). If the wholesale organization Kramp would like to start a transition towards a circular economy, a change in culture is needed combined with the creation of a sense of urgency and the creation of a powerful guiding coalition with a clear vision for the future, as none of this is currently present within the organization.
