social sciences $€ £ ¥ Article The Paradigms of Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy as Enabling Drivers for the Competitiveness of Businesses and Territories: The Case of an Italian Ceramic Tiles Manufacturing Company Fernando E. Garcia-Muiña 1 , Rocío González-Sánchez 1 , Anna Maria Ferrari 2 and Davide Settembre-Blundo 1,3,* 1 Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundaments of Economic Analysis, Rey-Juan-Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] (F.E.G.-M.);
[email protected] (R.G.-S.) 2 Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy;
[email protected] 3 Gruppo Ceramiche Gresmalt, Via Mosca 4, 41049 Sassuolo, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0536-867-011 Received: 1 November 2018; Accepted: 30 November 2018; Published: 4 December 2018 Abstract: Sustainable development and the circular economy are two important issues for the future and the competitiveness of businesses. The programs for the integration of sustainability into industrial activities include the reconfiguration of production processes with a view to reducing their impact on the natural system, the development of new eco-sustainable products and the redesign of the business model. This paradigm shift requires the participation and commitment of different stakeholder groups and industry can completely redesign supply chains, aiming at resource efficiency and circularity. Developments in key ICT technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), help this systemic transition. This paper explores the phases of the transition from a linear to a circular economy and proposes a procedure for introducing the principles of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) in a manufacturing environment, through the design of a new Circular Business Model (CBM).