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Circular Economy (CE) is today a major concept within the sustainability debate (Geissdoerfer, Savageta, Bocken & Hultinkb, 2017). Its theoretical arguments are widely accepted -especially at a cross-country institutional level -but businesses still seem reluctant to acknowledge it as a revenuemaking paradigm. This ongoing study aims to reveal where, along the value chain, firms are more unaware of CE best practice and/or reluctant to invest. After a comprehensive review of sustainable business models, the authors suggest a framework for circularity in business strategy as a beginning foothold on their research agenda. Next, the authors rely on expert informants to identify the most suitable areas in the value chain for the implementation of CE actions. Finally, an online free-access survey-like tool is launched to invite firms self-assessing (1) how relevant those identified areas are for their respective industries and (2) how CE-mature they feel regarding those areas. The initial results attest low consciousness of the CE potential across industries and even lower levels of maturity, especially by SMEs. Despite the growing evidence of Sustained Competitive Advantage (SCA) achieved by pioneering companies moving away from linear forms of production, through the development of new core competencies (Prahalad & Hamel 1990), most firms still perceive CE as something not applicable to them or too costly and risky to implement.

In 2004 Prahalad made managers aware of the great economic opportunity that the population at the BoP (Base of the Even in those few cases where products get re-envisioned, their introduction in contexts of extreme poverty only induces new needs and develops new dependencies. At best, the rearrangement of business models by MNCs has meant the realization of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) schemes that have validity from a marketing perspective, but still lack the crucial element of social embeddedness (London & Hart, 2004). Today the challenge is to reach the lowest population tier with reinvented business models based on principles of value co-creation. Starting from a view of the potential consumer at the BoP as a ring of continuity in the value chain process a resource that can itself produce value -this paper

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