Exploring awareness and practices of rural firms towards a circular economy: A study in rural areas of Greece and Romania
Paper ID:
cest2023_00525
Topic:
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and circular economy
File:
Published under CEST2023
Proceedings ISBN:
Proceedings ISSN: 2944-9820
Abstract:
Circular Economy (CE) has been promoted during the last decade through the mainstream EU policy as the alternative to the unsustainable current economic model. However, the awareness levels and practices of CE in the different sectors of the economy have been reported as lower than expected in the scant published research on the subject. This knowledge gap is even more significant for the rural sector of the economy. The current paper presents the state of awareness levels and practices of CE in rural firms. The study has been conducted in the rural areas of Drama County in Greece and Bacau County in Romania following a survey questionnaire approach. A total of 47 rural firms responded to the questionnaire and given the exploratory nature of the study, the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The findings of the study showed that in consideration of the three pillars of CE, environmental impact, resource scarcity, and economic benefits the rural firms in Greece placed higher emphasis on the environmental and resource scarcity pillars of CE, while in Romania on the economic pillar of CE. The study adds to the limited empirical research on CE awareness and practices of rural firms.
Keywords:
Rural firms, Circular Economy, Awareness, Practices