Social Innovation Platform for Circular Economy in Taiwan’s Textile Industry: Case Study of Cloth Bank

Abstract

With the rise of environmental awareness and sustainable development in developing countries there is a growing assurance about the potential of circular economy In circular economy products are recycled repaired and reused instead of thrown away and the waste generated in one process is used as an input for other processes Taiwan textile industry recently facing external and internal difficulty Many researchers have studied and inspected recent developments of circular economy in the textile industry from which some researches can be apply to textile ecosystem and platform However there is no standard platform based on the circular economy concept that can be use in Taiwan textile industry Therefore the purpose of this research is to develop platform strategies based on circular economy for sustaining Taiwan’s textile platform model from the view point of social innovation diffusion and industrial development By analyzing the current circumstances of textile related business and the opinions from the stakeholders this study can identify the trend of the future platform Based on the above explanations this project selects the lead non-profit platform in Taiwan textile industry – Cloth Bank as the object of this research to understand its operation and stakeholder relationship This project comprises with a DB School internship and focusing involves in the internal operation of the Cloth Bank which has not been considered by previous researchers in the same field In this study we exploit the methodology of qualitative research to understand the user experience expectation of Cloth Bank suppliers and demanders and further to understand the consumer behavior In the research process the data were collected from the observations and questionnaires by interviewing the key stakeholders consumers and other experts Finally the primary data and secondary data were analyzed to provide a profitable and commercial suggestion for the Cloth Bank At the end of the analysis the researchers have explored the access and valuable resources for the circular economy in Taiwan’s textile industry as a way to up-cycle and recreate the value of the resource The data were analyzed to expand the existing business model and adopt the practical research approach in collaboration with Cloth Bank as well as to develop a two-sided platform model Moreover the program proposes complete the phased platform system for short-term mid-term and long-term to enhance its sustainable management These study on social innovation platform of Taiwan’s textile industry has the importance of exploring strategies to prolong this platform model of circular economy as well as promoting Taiwan’s textile developing textile ecosystem

Date of Award	2018 Jul 16
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chia-Han Yang (Supervisor)