Contextual factors influencing the development of a circular business model in aquaponics : a case study of Peckas Tomater

Abstract: Research within the area of aquaponics is mostly focusing on technical perspectives such as aquaculture, hydroponics, and engineering. There are also few existing commercial aquaponics businesses globally and little knowledge about how aquaponic business model develop in practice. This study’s aim was to examine contextual factors that enable and inhibit developments of aquaponic business model. The purpose was to create in-depth insights on how aquaponic business model are developed in practice and what factors that affect the development towards a circular bio-economy. The unit of analysis was the Swedish company Peckas Tomater. A qualitative methodology was chosen and it had an inductive approach. A case study was conducted with five semi-structured interviews. This study’s major conclusions were that the most significant internal factors that enabled the development of Peckas Tomater’s business model towards circular bio-economy were key persons, Pecka Nygårds knowledge, and internal culture. The most significant external enabling factor was the mature market. Difficulty to find key persons and energy consumption was the two most significant internal constraining factors while legislations were the most significant external constraining factor. It could be stated that Peckas Tomater potentially can be seen as a business that contributes to a circular economy and circular bio-economy since they use the latest technology regarding aquaponics, only uses renewable energy, have excluded plastic, and is seen to create positive societal impacts. Aquaponics have therefore the potential of making food production more sustainable due to the closed circular system that enables reuse of materials. However, it could be argued that aquaponics cannot be the only solution.