This study develops a multilevel conceptual model of resource transformation in biogas-based industrial symbiosis (IS). It examines how residual flows such as digestate, carbon dioxide (CO₂), and heat become strategic resources through coordinated technological, organisational, and institutional processes. Using bibliometric science mapping of 228 peer-reviewed articles (1990–2024), combined with theory-driven interpretation, the study identifies dominant research patterns and underlying structural relationships in the field. The analysis reveals three cross-cutting mechanisms—resource conversion, coordination, and institutional stabilisation—that structure resource transformation across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. The findings show a shift in the literature from technology- and efficiency-oriented perspectives toward systemic, multi-actor, and policy-embedded understandings of circular innovation. Building on this, the study develops a mechanism-based conceptual synthesis that explains how value emerges through the alignment of technological processes, inter-organisational networks, and institutional conditions. The study further illustrates how Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) concepts can be applied in a multilevel context, showing that VRIN (valuable, rare, imitable, non-substitutable) characteristics are not inherent properties of resources but emerge through coordinated processes across system levels. Finally, it proposes analytically derived propositions and guiding principles for practice that highlight the conditions under which IS systems may develop and scale. © 2026 The Authors.

Background: The transition towards a circular economy requires innovative approaches to resource efficiency, particularly in the energy–agriculture nexus (Song et al., 2024). Biogas is a key renewable energy carrier with strong potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while contributing to circular nutrient cycles (Alengebawy et al., 2022) However, current biogas systems in Northern Europe rely heavily on manure, which alone is insufficient to meet increasing renewable energy demands (Einarsson & Persson, 2017; Stolarski et al., 2020). The Accel AgroBiogas research project (2025-2027) addresses this gap by exploring how underutilised agricultural residues can be mobilised for sustainable biogas production. The project aims to accelerate biomass supply while ensuring environmental integrity, economic feasibility, and compatibility with food production systems.

Methods/Approach: Accel AgroBiogas adopts a cross-border, multi-actor approach involving partners from Sweden and Denmark, including universities, advisory organisations, public authorities, and industry stakeholders. Central to the methodology are four “Living Labs” established in different regions (3 in Sweden and 1 in Denmark), where farmers, biogas producers, researchers, and policymakers collaborate in real-world experimental settings (Huang et al., 2024). These Living Labs facilitate co-creation and testing of new biomass supply chains, focusing on agricultural residues such as straw, cover crops, beet tops, and surplus grassland. The project integrates field experiments, technical trials in biogas plants (including pre-treatment and digestion processes), and value-chain analysis to assess logistics, economic viability, and environmental impacts. In parallel, policy analysis and stakeholder dialogues are conducted to identify regulatory barriers and inform supportive policy frameworks.

Preliminary results:  Preliminary results indicate significant untapped potential in agricultural residual streams to increase biogas production without expanding land use or compromising food production. The project demonstrates that innovative cultivation strategies, such as cover cropping and sequential biomass systems, can enhance resource utilisation while supporting soil health and ecosystem services (Quintarielli et al., 2022). At the same time, technical challenges related to handling heterogeneous biomass streams, such as storage stability, pre-treatment efficiency, and impacts on digestate quality, are being systematically addressed. Early findings also highlight the importance of coordinated logistics and new business models to enable effective collaboration between farmers and biogas producers. Furthermore, policy inconsistencies between agricultural, energy, waste, and climate frameworks have been identified as critical barriers, underscoring the need for integrated governance approaches.

Discussion/Conclusions Accel AgroBiogas illustrates how circular economy principles can be operationalised through integrated, cross-sectoral collaboration. By valorising agricultural residues as energy resources, the project contributes to closing material loops, reducing emissions, and strengthening rural economies. The Living Lab approach ensures that innovations are context-specific, scalable, and socially embedded (Huang et al., 2024). Importantly, the project highlights that achieving a circular bioeconomy requires not only technological innovation but also institutional alignment and stakeholder engagement across value chains. The insights generated provide actionable pathways for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers aiming to scale sustainable biogas systems in Europe and beyond.

Produktion och användning av biogas och biogödsel är ett cirkulärt system som kan bidra till energiförsörjning och klimatomställning. Biogassystemet behöver involvera både industriella aktörer och andra organisationer för att utveckla biogasmarknadens fulla potential. I detta projekt har vi arbetat med att förstå drivkrafter och hinder för industriell symbios i biogassystemet (BIS), samt med att analysera vilka digitala lösningar som skulle kunna underlätta samarbete mellan intressenter. Projektet har identifierat aktörer, deras roller och potentiella interaktioner inom systemet för industriell symbios. Affärspartners från olika delar av värdekedjan har involverats eftersom de har ett intresse av att utveckla biogasmarknaden, hållbara affärsmodeller och industriell symbios.

Projektet har utgått från sex fallstudier som innefattar biogasanläggningar med olika substrat, teknik och ägandeform samt med geografisk spridning inom Sverige. Resultatet visar att utvecklingen av BIS kräver mer än tekniska lösningar och ekonomiska incitament. Framgången beror på förmågan att samordna aktörer som verkar utifrån olika logiker; den statliga med fokus på reglering och samhällsnytta, den marknadsmässiga med krav på effektivitet och lönsamhet, och den hållbarhetsorienterade med betoning på samarbete och långsiktigt ansvar. Ett ramverk med samverkansmodell, processbeskrivning och färdplan presenteras tillsammans med konkreta rekommendationer för hur BIS kan utvecklas. Färdplanen pekar mot behovet av en symbioskoordinatorsfunktion (facilitator) som kan stödja samordning och institutionell samverkan där digitalisering, gemensamma styrformer och kunskapsutbyte fungerar som verktyg för översättning mellan logiker. Effekten blir att biogassektorn kan utvecklas och resiliensen i Sveriges energisystem stärkas genom lokala och samverkande initiativ.

The production and use of biogas and biofertilizer constitute a circular system that can contribute to energy supply and climate transition. The biogas system needs to involve both industrial actors and other organisations to realise the full potential of the biogas market. In this project, we have examined the drivers and barriers for industrial symbiosis in a biogas context (BIS), as well as identified which digital solutions could enhance collaboration between stakeholders. The project has mapped actors, their roles, and their potential interactions within the industrial symbiosis system. Business partners from different parts of the value chain have been involved, as they have an interest in developing the biogas market, sustainable business models, and industrial symbiosis.

The project has analysed six cases of biogas plants using different substrates, techniques and ownerships as well as from different geographic areas in Sweden. The results show that developing BIS will require more than technical solutions and economic advantages. Success will rather depend on ability to coordinate actors working from different logics; the state logic with focus on rules and societal benefit, the market logic with demand for efficiency and profitability and the sustainability logic highlighting collaboration and long-term responsibility. A framework with a collaboration model, process description and roadmap is presented together with concrete recommendations for how BIS can be developed. The roadmap points to the need for a symbiosis coordinator function (facilitator) that can support coordination and institutional cooperation where digitalisation, common governance and shared knowledge work as tools for the translation between logics. The expected impact is a developed biogas sector with a more resilient energy system in Sweden through local and cooperation initiatives.

In the transition towards a circular economy and more sustainable business practices, industrial symbiosis (IS) has emerged as a promising strategy to enhance resource efficiency, reduce waste, and generate economic and environmental benefits. Despite its well-documented advantages, IS adoption remains fragmented and inconsistent across industries and regions, raising critical questions about the drivers and barriers that influence its implementation. Energy-based IS, particularly bioenergy production like biogas, exemplifies the complexities of IS adoption. Thus, this study seeks to examine the interplay between drivers and barriers and their effect on adoption and implementation of biogas-based IS on five industrial symbioses, where additional challenges, such as competition with fossil fuels and fragmented supply chains add further complexity. The results show that economic incentives drive industrial biogas symbioses, social factors, especially collaboration and networking, are crucial enablers. A higher number of social barriers, compared to environmental ones, underscores that trust, cooperative competence, and stable relationships are not peripheral but essential. This research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of biogas IS adoption, offering insights for business managers, policymakers, and sustainability practitioners seeking to advance IS as a scalable strategy for circular economy transitions.

The implementation of water-related environmental measures (WREMs) in agricultural businesses presents an opportunity to align food production with sustainable value creation through ecosystem services. However, the complexity of adopting these measures, and making them a part of business models, necessitates the involvement of intermediaries to facilitate business opportunities that align with governmental sustainability goals. This study investigates the role of government-affiliated intermediaries in facilitating agricultural business plans, motives, and support needs for implementing WREMs. Using baseline and follow-up questionnaire data from 255 agricultural business managers, the study finds that intermediaries play a crucial role in fostering long-term sustainability commitments. Their facilitation, through expert advice, knowledge transfer, and resource mobilization, significantly increased the likelihood of businesses planning semi-long-term WREMs. However, the correlation between WREMs and market-driven value creation remained weak, highlighting the need for enhanced support in developing financially viable sustainability solutions. These findings underscore the importance of aligning intermediation strategies with business managers’ financial incentives to drive broader adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. © 2025 The Author(s).

Improving sustainability performance and adapting to circular economy principles in operational business strategies are becoming increasingly prioritized. In this pursuit, the concept of industrial symbiosis (IS) has become increasingly relevant. IS represents a collaborative approach where the interplay of material, residual waste, energy, and infrastructure exchanges aims to yield not only economic and environmental advantages for the participating companies but also substantial societal benefits by using resources more efficiently. Biogas production is such an example, it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions since it can produce heat and electricity, replace renewable fuel for vehicles, or be used as input material for industrial use. The digestate from biogas production can also be used as an effective agricultural fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizers which are produced using fossil energy.

Digital tools and platforms in IS can be used to different extent depending on businesses levels of digital maturity (the extent to which businesses adapt to ongoing digital change and integrate digitalization). Digital tools and platforms hold a central role for developing various advantages in biogas-based IS, but since the digital maturity for IS focusing on biogas production is uncertain, the current efficiency obtained by tools and platforms is unknown. Therefore, through semi-structured interviews and study visits, this study assesses stakeholder collaboration and use of digital tools at five IS sites with biogas production in Sweden. It explores (i) current digital maturity and collaboration characteristics amongst established biogas-based IS, and (ii) needs amongst stakeholders for development of digital tools and platforms to promote digital maturity, monitoring, collaboration, and knowledge exchange in current and future IS structures.

Preliminary results of the on-going study show that the use of digital tools varies depending on the character and size of resource flows that are included in the collaboration, and due to the internal digital maturity of the involved companies. In general, the use of digital tools for stakeholder interaction is on low or medium level, in which manual handling is required and little is automated. This complies with the sites being relatively small, and the number of stakeholders involved are relatively few. Moreover, the preliminary results show that the interest of future development of digital tools is found to be related to business development and expanded market opportunities through diversified raw material use, increased production, and new distribution channels. In addition, a demand of digital platforms for exchange of experience and competence supply has been identified.

The agricultural sector has a critical role in creating social and environmental value of natural resources in addition to its traditional role of creating economic value by supplying food to the ever-increasing world population. In fulfilling this dual role, the agricultural sector often faces competing pressures: to operate financially profitable businesses and to create, maintain, and benefit from ecosystem services (ES) in their operations. This paper analyses these pressures in an examination of drivers and barriers to the initiation of the business model innovation process for sustainability (BMIpfS) as perceived by ten agricultural business managers who operate farms in southern Sweden. The paper explores the interplay between managerial cognition and business decisions as revealed in semi-structured interviews. The new ES in focus connect to radical land-use change, paludiculture, as used in the rewetting of farmland intended to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drained peat soil causes. The paper contributes to the literature by identifying drivers and barriers that moderates the initiation of the BMIpfS. Although the managers acknowledge the importance of long-term, sustainable social, and environmental value creation, they have grave doubts about the profitability of activities associated with the preservation of peat soils and connected ES. These managers would benefit from taking a more proactive, long-term approach to business model changes for sustainability and from acquiring more knowledge about market demand for sustainability-oriented ES. Successful facilitation and implementation of knowledge transfer and government subsidies that support ES could improve the turning of profits based on sustainable value creation.

This study aims to investigate focal firms' business sustainability relationships in connection with their stakeholders in supply chain networks. A questionnaire survey was sent to a sample consisting of large Swedish firms, with 107 usable questionnaires returned. The results reveal which stakeholders are of interest for firms in sustainability efforts. The results are compared with earlier findings from Norway and Spain in a triangular approach. The former is a similar country, while the latter is different to Sweden in several ways. In addition, the study uncovers which stakeholders in the supply chain network should be considered. The study also demonstrates how firms can implement business sustainability in their supply chain networks and shows the extent to which different stakeholders are considered in sustainability efforts. The study contributes to sustainability research and stakeholder theory in supply chain networks. Opposite to earlier findings, this study showed only minor influences from national culture and institutions on firms' sustainable business practices in supply chain networks. © 2022 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The agricultural sector has a critical role in creating social and environmental value from natural resources in addition to its traditional role of creating economic value through food production. In fulfilling this dual role, the agricultural sector faces what is often viewed as competing pressures: to operate financially profitable businesses and to create, maintain and benefit from ecosystem services (ES) in their operations. ES, such as food production, climate regulation, and water management, are benefits ecological systems provide humans and that are critical to the function of life-support systems on earth (Costanza et al., 1997).

Previous research shows that agricultural businesses associate maintenance of sustainability-oriented ES (other than those connected to food production such as climate regulation and water purification) with increased costs connected to their preservation, and uncertain incomes due to their intangibility and long-termism (Bocken and Geradts, 2019; Hansson et al., 2012; Smith and Sullivan, 2014). As a result, drivers, barriers, and changes in the external environment greatly shape business strategies and decisions on activities for creating, delivering, and capturing sustainable value (Kaplan, 2011; Teece, 2010; Yang et al., 2019). Moreover, the understanding of such moderating factors is especially important for realising sustainable business activities that require radical changes in current business models (BMs) (Lütz and Bastian, 2002; Bocken and Geradts, 2019). A BM describes the business logic of a company i.e., how economic value is created, captured, and delivered (e.g., Teece, 2010; Zott and Amit, 2007). It can be used to describe and implement a company’s current and future plans for financial success through producing, marketing, and selling sustainable goods and services (Karlsson et al., 2018).

Sustainability-oriented BM changes can be realized via a business model innovation process for sustainability (BMIpfS) that builds on a systematic and holistic mindset of the involved actors (Stubbs and Cocklin, 2008; Zott and Amit, 2010). The BMIpfS requires businesses to make strategic decisions related to market, customers, and value propositions for optimizing social and environmental value creation (Bocken et al., 2014; Schaltegger et al., 2016). The BMIpfS can thus be crucial for driving the development of sustainable BMs (Karlsson et al., 2018) for agricultural businesses in which the creation and processing of ES are important elements. Through BM changes supported by the BMIpfS, inclusion of ES previously not captured by BMs could become a sustainable value-creating activity for agricultural businesses and their stakeholders (e.g., customers, suppliers, and retailers) by creating financial value from ES while simultaneously preserving the ecosystems.

Thus, the aim of this study is to further the understanding of drivers and barriers, as perceived by agricultural business managers, for initiating the BMIpfS based on the inclusion of sustainability-oriented ES. The study uses qualitative thematic content analysis (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004) to analyse the data of perceived drivers and barriers to the initiation of the BMIpfS as they are revealed in semi-structured interviews by ten agricultural business managers operating farms in southern Sweden.

The results show that business managers’ main business concerns were based on financial considerations that acted as either drivers or barriers for the initiation of the BMIpfS depending on whether the managers viewed the inclusion of sustainability-oriented ES as business risks or as opportunities. The drivers reported by the managers were based on the core idea of realising and taking advantage of business opportunities, both on a short-term and a long-term basis, in connection to the uncaptured value inclusion of sustainability-oriented ES in BMs can offer. The managers were also driven by their belief that sustainable value creation is a business responsibility in relation to stakeholders and the global population in which challenges to food supplies play an important part. The drivers included the idea that a breaking point may arrive when profit cannot be sustained and a new balance between shareholder and stakeholder value is needed. To proactively avoid such breaking points, they viewed value creation and capture of sustainability-oriented ES as an important part of sustainable farming systems. The barriers identified revealed that the business managers’ main concern was the financial risks associated with the sometimes substantial changes to current farming systems required to include sustainability-oriented ES. They were concerned with how these changes would affect their long-term profit, especially the impact on their revenue streams. This was emphasised by their low tolerance for uncertainty when making decisions about business changes, especially because they thought the proposed changes were antithetical to their traditional value-creating activities and their self-perception of what it means to be a food producer. Unclear benefits from meeting sustainability targets added to their doubts.

On a general level, this study contributes to the business model innovation literature by identifying drivers and barriers that moderates the initiation of the BMIpfS. It complements previous research regarding the connection between individual, sustainability concerns and organisational values in a BM change process (Bansal 2003; Rauter et al., 2017). Through the contributions of this study, the needs connected to sustainable BM change amongst agricultural business managers can be better understood and met as the managers acknowledge the importance of long-term, sustainable social and environmental value creation, while addressing their grave doubts about the profitability of activities associated with the initiation of the BMIpfS based on to the inclusion of sustainability-oriented ES. The managers would benefit from taking a more proactive, long-term approach to business model changes for sustainability and from acquiring more knowledge about market demand for sustainability-oriented ES. Support is needed by one or several actors that can facilitate (clarify, motivate, and practically assist) change and improve the turning of profits based on sustainable value creation (Kundrupi et al., 2021). The results could also be important for policy makers in the development of agricultural support systems and programmes. These, in turn, can benefit the implementation of sustainability-oriented BM changes that can play a crucial role in preservation of natural ecosystems.

This study investigates the direct and indirect effects between economic, social and environmental dimensions of triple bottom line (TBL), based on a questionnaire survey and cross-industrial sample in Sweden. The analyses apply partial least squares structural equation models. The study tests the direct and indirect effects between economic, social, and environmental dimensions of TBL and offers additional validity and reliability to establish the measurement and structural properties between the dimensions of TBL. The study extends earlier findings by explicitly discussing how the three TBL goals relate to each other and shows how the dynamic capability view can be a fruitful lens to investigate business sustainability. Some differences in sustainability business practices caused by differences in national cultures are identified. Sustainability reporting in a strong uncertainty avoidance (UA) country happens in accordance with regulations and laws. Conversely, for weak UA cultures, reporting and compliance with regulations are ways to build trust with stakeholders. That is, reporting is more transparent and widespread in weak UA countries. The study also provides a foundation to guide companies' actions of business sustainability. The model shows companies how to establish the order of actions undertaken across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. In addition, it clarifies that the economic dimension exerts an effect on the social and environmental dimensions. The model also grasps long-term economic performance by including competitiveness and brand value, while earlier research mainly has focused on more short-term measurements as return on assets. © 2022 The Authors. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.