Feasibility Of Life Cycle Costing For Circular Economy Business

Question: Discuss about the Analysis Of The Feasibility Of Life Cycle Costing For Circular Economy Business Models For SMEs Within The Top Sector, Water. Answer: Introduction Circular economy refers to the regenerative system in the economy, which minimizes the amount of waste, energy leakage, emission and usage of input resources by slowing, narrowing and closing the energy and the material loops (EEA, 2017). This is a sustainable economic model and can be achieved through the long lasting and sustainable business designs, maintenance system, applying the strategy of repair-reuse-recycle and refurbishing (Makkink, 2016). Life cycle costing is one type of economic analysis, which is used for selecting the alternative options affecting the pending and the future cost of the business (Dhillon, 2013). It is a comparative cost analysis of the initial investment and least cost alternatives. For the SMEs in any sector, life cycle costing helps in analyzing the profit opportunities. The water sectormanagement of Bangladesh has integrated policies that aims to utilize the huge amount of resources for the agricultural and SMEs in the industrial sector. The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate the feasibility of the life cycle costing for the circular economy business models for the SMEs of Bangladesh by using water resource management. Problem statement Bangladesh is an agricultural economy. Water sectormanagement is extremely essential in an agricultural economy as the agricultural production is heavily dependent on the water. If the water supply is hampered, the GDP of the nation gets affected due a fall in agricultural production (Loucks Van Beek, 2017). The SMEs in the agricultural sector and in the other sectors are now adopting the circular business economy model to follow the sustainability practices by reducing the wastes (cuts-citee.org, 2015). The problem statement of this research paper focuses on the problems of thewater resource management in applying life cycle costing in the application of circular economy business model. Research aim and objectives The aim of the research paper is to evaluate various options of the water resource sector in Bangladesh in applying the life cycle costing in the circular economy business model that would benefit the SMEs. The objectives of the research paper are: To evaluate various factors for life cycle costing in the water resource management sector To assess the role of the SMEs in the circular economy business model in Bangladesh To examine the scopes for water management to improve the agricultural and food sector of Bangladesh to increase the production and export Research questions The research questions are: What are the various factors for life cycle costing in the water resource management sector in Bangladesh? What is the role of the SMEs in the circular economy business model in Bangladesh? What are the scopes for water management to improve the agricultural and food sector of Bangladesh to increase the production and export? Research methodology Research methodology represents the researchers strategy to address the research problem. It is composed of research philosophy, strategy, approach, design, data collection and process of data analysis. The elementary plan of the researcher to confront the aim and objectives of the research, draw a conclusion in a most rational and relevant manner is the matter of the research methodology (Lewis, 2015). The researcher will to try to evaluate the impact of life cycle costing for the business of the SMEs in Bangladesh and the role of the water management sector in implementing circular economy business model through this research study. To pursue the study, firstly, the researcher has to conduct a wide-ranging literature review. This is essential to obtain knowledge about different elements of the research. The purpose of the literature review is to put forward the findings from the academic articles by other scholars that would make the readers acquainted with the research topic (Bryman Bell, 2015). The literature review will be done in alignment with the objectives of the research and will be presented in a thematic structure. The researcher will be collecting both primary and secondary data for the research study. A survey will be conducted to collect the primary data. Simple random sampling technique will be used to choose 50 participants and 10 close ended questions will be asked to them, and the questions would be focusing on retrieving the information on the perceptions of the respondents on the effect of life cycle costing in the circular business model regarding the SMEs in the water sector management. The researcher will be collecting secondary data from several academic papers, peer reviewed journals, online publications, magazines, books, newspaper articles, presentations and official websites of different water management companies in this industry of Bangladesh. This data is helpful in validating the results of the primary data analysis. Secondary data sources and analysis process As stated earlier, the secondary data will be used by the researcher to provide support to the primary data analysis and to validate the outcomes. Several peer reviewed journals and academic articles will be consulted to get relevant information about the topic of the research. The journals, such as, International Journal of Water Resources Development, Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, Science, Forest Policy and Economics, Agricultural Systems and many more will be reviewed for the academic articles by various authors. Apart from that, different books and online publications on factors of life cycle costing, business operations of the SMEs in Bangladesh, water resource management and its implications on the circular economy business model in Bangladesh will be reviewed to get data on different themes of the research. Along with that, several newspaper articles, such as, from, policy publications, PDFs, presentations and annual reports of a few water resource companie s will be consulted for relevant data on the research topic. After data collection was done, quantitative method for analyzing the primary responses will be applied by the researcher. The survey will be conducted using any online technique, such as, Google form. Likert scale values will be used for the responses and it will be presented in a MS Excel file. The data will be transformed into numerical values. Statistical calculations will be performed on the data to get the relation between the impact of the circular business model on the Water sector and the SMEs of Bangladesh. Thematic analysis under the qualitative analysis technique will be conducted on the secondary data for evaluating the validity and reliability of the results of the primary data analysis. References Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2015).Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. cuts-citee.org. (2015).Policy Brief on Water Management in Bangladesh(2nd ed.). Dhaka: CUTS International. Retrieved from https://www.cuts-citee.org/SDIP/pdf/Policy_Brief_on_Water-Water_Management_in_Bangladesh.pdf https://www.cuts-citee.org/SDIP/pdf/Policy_Brief_on_Water-Water_Management_in_Bangladesh.pdf Dhillon, B. (2013).Life cycle costing: techniques, models and applications. Routledge. EEA. (2017).Circular by design: Products in the circular economy(6th ed.). European Environment Agency. Retrieved from https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/circular_by_design_-_products_in_the_circular_economy.pdf https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/circular_by_design_-_products_in_the_circular_economy.pdf Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches.Health promotion practice,16(4), 473-475. Loucks, D. P., Van Beek, E. (2017).Water resource systems planning and management: An introduction to methods, models, and applications. Springer. Makkink, S. (2016).Circular economy, the new business opportunities in the sanitation sector!.Aquaforall.org. Retrieved 21 March 2018, from https://aquaforall.org/circular-economy-the-new-business-opportunities-in-the-sanitation-sector/ https://aquaforall.org/circular-economy-the-new-business-opportunities-in-the-sanitation-sector/