schoolRESEARCHER

Prof. Eleanor Vance

Director & Chair in Sustainable Enterprise

Scholarly Outputs3 Publications
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Academic Biography

Professor Eleanor Vance is the founding Director of the Centre for Innovation and Sustainability Research (CISR). With over two decades of experience in organizational strategy and sustainable industrial transitions, her scholarship focuses on circular business model implementation in medium-sized manufacturing clusters. She has advised European policy committees on industrial decarbonisation and holds advisory affiliations across leading management associations.

Key Research Interests
Circular EconomyManufacturing StrategySME DecarbonisationInstitutional Economics

Authored Publications & Working Papers

All Publications →
Open Access • CC BY 4.0Sustainability & Responsible BusinessWORKING PAPER

Circular Business Models in Manufacturing SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Northern Europe

Prof. Eleanor Vance, Dr. Marcus Thorne•Published 2026•CISR Working Paper Series

While circular economic paradigms have been broadly studied within multinational corporations, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face distinct resource asymmetries, structural rigidities, and capital constraints when operationalizing circularity. This study investigates the institutional conditions, organizational capabilities, and technology integration mechanisms required for manufacturing SMEs to transition successfully toward closed-loop industrial ecosystems. Employing an empirical mixed-methods design, we examine survey data from 142 enterprise owners and executive directors across Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, triangulated with 18 in-depth qualitative field audits of advanced manufacturing facilities conducted between 2023 and 2025. Our findings reveal that while 68% of surveyed firms maintain strategic intent toward product remanufacturing and material recovery, fewer than 22% have embedded circular performance metrics into their capital expenditure authorizations or supplier appraisal frameworks. We identify cross-tier reverse supply chain transparency, digital product passport infrastructure, and collaborative multi-stakeholder municipal hubs as paramount determinants for commercial viability. Conversely, regulatory friction in waste taxonomy classification persists as the primary institutional impediment across Nordic jurisdictions. We conclude by presenting an actionable 4-phase circular transition archetype for enterprise management alongside 3 policy directives for European industrial decarbonization frameworks.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.01.024
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Open Access • CC BY-NC 4.0Finance & Financial MarketsJOURNAL ARTICLE

Pricing Sustainable Debt: Credit Spreads and Green Bond Premiums in European Secondary Markets

Prof. Eleanor Vance, Dr. Marcus Thorne•Published 2025•Journal of Sustainable Finance & Banking

We examine secondary market transactions of 3,400 corporate debt securities issued across European exchanges between 2020 and 2025. Applying propensity score matching and firm-level fixed effects, we isolate a statistically significant green premium of 4.2 basis points for investment-grade issuers with verified third-party taxonomy alignment. However, this premium dissipates entirely among issuers exhibiting substantial ESG rating divergence across major rating providers, suggesting investor skepticism toward ambiguous sustainability disclosures.

DOI: 10.1093/jsf/2025.042
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Open Access • CC BY 4.0Digital Transformation & GovernanceRESEARCH REPORT

Digital Product Passports in Industrial Value Chains: Architecture, Governance and Adoption Barriers

Prof. Eleanor Vance, Dr. Marcus Thorne•Published 2025•CISR Research Report Series

The European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) establishes Digital Product Passports (DPPs) as mandatory compliance mechanisms. This research report details architectural frameworks for decentralized material tracking, analyzes data governance models, and documents implementation costs across 45 mid-market European suppliers in industrial machinery and textiles.

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4891024
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Research Projects

ONGOINGCircular Business Models in Manufacturing SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Northern Europe

A multi-year investigation into institutional conditions, capital allocation, and reverse logistics in 142 manufacturing SMEs.

ONGOINGESG Integration and Cost of Capital in European Corporate Debt Markets

Econometric modeling of secondary bond spreads, sustainability-linked covenant structures, and investor screening premiums.