Flourishing Business Community Speakers Series: Stories from the Field #33
Patterns of Flourishing Circular Economy Business Models + Research & Practice Collaboration Invitation with Dr. Christopher Dormeier
| Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026 |
| Time: 15h00 UTC – 08h00 PST, 11h00 EST, 16h00 BST, 17h00 CET, 00h00 + 1 day JST. To convert UTC to your timezone, click here |
| Duration: 1 hour |
| Registration: Required via Eventbrite at bit.ly/SFF33-Register |
For our thirty third monthly flourishing business community speaker series: stories from the field, we’re doing something a little different. We’re delighted to welcome Dr. Christopher Dormeier from the Entrepreneurship Hub at the Technische Universität Braunschweig/Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
The Flourishing Enterprise Co-lab is grateful for the support of Social Innovation at Georgian College, Ontario, Canada, to put on our speaker series.
Dr. Dormeier has recently completed his PhD in engineering on the topic of patterns of circular economy business models and is now keen to find research and practitioner collaborators in this field to decisively move this work so that it strictly enables flourishing aka strongly sustainable outcomes.
Since the bulk of this session will be for participants to interact with Dr. Dormeier, to explore the possibilities for collaboration on future research and / or practice, please watch this full length presentation of his PhD research before the session. This was recorded by the Sustainability Working Group of the International Council on Systems Engineering (SWG INCOSE)
Since the design of business models from multiple companies must be co-ordinated to consistently and rigorously apply circular economy thinking so that flourishing outcomes across the entire circle emerge, Dr. Dormeier’s research represents an important step in this direction. His research’s unit of analysis is not the single business model of one firm, but all the business models of all the firms in a circle, and the patterns of those designs that lead to flourishing aka strongly sustainable circular outcomes.
Dr. Christopher Dormeier is a Research Associate at Technische Universität Braunschweig and external researcher at the Institute for Integrated Quality Design (IQD) at Johannes Kepler University. His research focuses on sustainable and circular business models, entrepreneurial value creation, and the design of interorganizational systems that enable economic, environmental, and societal value. In his role, he connects research with entrepreneurship education, start-up support, and knowledge transfer.
The Entrepreneurship Hub is a joint research, education, and transfer initiative of Technische Universität Braunschweig and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. Its interdisciplinary research explores entrepreneurship, sustainable innovation, business model development, and how purpose-driven ventures can create economic, environmental, and societal value. These insights inform teaching, start-up support, and collaborative projects that help translate research and ideas into flourishing and sustainable businesses.
Dr. Dormeier’s engagement with the Flourishing Business Canvas has primarily been through teaching and research. He has plans to start applying it in organizational practice. He has introduced the canvas in lectures as an example of how business model design can move beyond firm-centric and financial perspectives to consider purpose, stakeholders, ecosystems, and multiple forms of value. In his research, he analyzed the Flourishing Business Canvas alongside other business model design tools to examine how effectively such tools support a systemic perspective on circular economy business models. This has highlighted both the Flourishing Business Canvas’s potential for stimulating broader reflection and the challenge of translating its comprehensive perspective into concrete design choices and implementation.
Before inviting participants to explore their perspective on research and practice collaboration possibilities Dr. Dormeier will briefly summarize his research:
- Why circular business models require a systemic perspective on interdependent actors, activities, resources, and value flows.
- How business model conceptualizations shape whether design tools reveal or overlook interorganizational dependencies and system-level effects.
- Challenges and benefits observed when students and practitioners move from designing individual business models to configuring Circular Value Creation Architectures.
- What he hopes to gain from his collaboration with members of this community
- What he hopes to contribute back to this community
After his short talk, Dr. Dormeier and Antony Upward will facilitate a discussion to explore research and practice collaboration possibilities to further Dr. Dormieir’s vital work which is required to enable flourishing business model designs that successfully apply circular economy thinking.
After the event, a video of the talk plus slides will be shared in the “Speaker Series” space of the Flourishing Business Community. Please join other flourishing business leaders and become a full member to access.